What if Babies come from the Spirit World?
by Jen-chan-shaw
Summary: Korra and Asami's relationship progresses waaaay faster than either of them could predict due to one spirit's misunderstanding of basic human biology. T for now. (Chapter 10 & 14 are M). (Chapter 27 is really M).
1. Teaser

The rustling sound of feathered wings woke Korra up. She opened her eyes and saw a spirit that looked something like a white crane preening its feathers beside her.

Korra blinked and sat up, pulling the blanket up to cover herself, but was careful not to expose too much of Asami, still sleeping beside her, bare as she herself was.

"Can I help you, Spirit?" Korra asked, feeling groggy.

"Oh, don't mind me," said the bird-like spirit cheerfully. "I've just finished the delivery. Just give me a couple moments to wash up and I'll be on my way."

The grogginess dissipated.

Korra blinked again. "Delivery? What delivery?"

The crane cocked its head to the side. "Oh, you know. The soul for the baby! You two have only been summoning for it non-stop the last few hours! Sheesh! Okay, okay! I got the message!" The bird gave a squawk that felt like it was meant to be a friendly laugh. "Honestly, Avatar, next time, you really should take more care to dot every I and cross every T in your signals. King Enma can be a real stickler sometimes, and if the signal isn't complete, the message just won't get passed onto us storks. And yours was missing some pretty basic things! You're lucky I noticed you two here since this place is on my flight path home!"

Korra could only continue to stare at the crane - the _stork_ - as a very worrisome sinking feeling stirred in her stomach.

Then the spirit hopped to the edge of the alcove and took off. "I hope you like them! I picked them out myself!"

"Wait!" Korra cried as she reached out for the stork frantically, but the spirit had already left, and she was unable to ask the torrid of questions on her lips, starting with, _'exactly which one of us did you make this *delivery* to?!'_

* * *

><p>AUTHOR'S NOTES:<p>

Theory: The Spirit World is kinda like the afterlife, and that's where people go when they die until they are reborn. There is a class of spirit that function like shinigami and are responsible for ferrying people to and from the mortal coil.

I'm not quite sure where I wanna go with this yet, but I thought I'd just put this here for now and let it stew for a while. ^_^

TBC

(Edit: This scene was originally written in present tense, and it's really bugging me so I've edited it to be past tense. Thank you for your patience.)


	2. Please Tell Me You Know How Babies Are M

Asami had not expected the morning after first consummating her relationship with Korra to be quite so... boisterous. She had hoped for snuggles and kisses (and maybe even a continuation of the previous night's activities), but suspected that perhaps a fairly serious heart-to-heart would happen instead, since neither of them had quite expected last night to go as far as it had.

Instead, Asami woke up to the sight of a naked Korra with her head sticking out of the alcove of the Tree of Time and the sound of her frantically shouting at the top of her lungs, "COME BACK HERE!"

Asami got the impression that Korra was ready to jump right out of the tree, fully-and-appropriately-dressed-or-otherwise, and quickly moved to stay her, reaching out and catching Korra's arm.

"Korra!" Asami tried to calm her... her friend? girlfriend? lover? all of the above? and this was surprisingly difficult as, while Korra's agitation was quite clearly visible all over her face and body, the cause of said agitation was not. "What's wrong?"

"Stork! Delivery! _Baby!_" Korra was unusually tongue-tied as she sputtered and frantically looked back and forth between Asami and outside of the alcove as though she couldn't decide if it was more important to go after whoever it was she was shouting at or stay and explain the situation to Asami.

"…"

Fortunately or otherwise, the decision was largely made for Korra as whomever she was shouting at appeared to have gotten away while Asami was sitting and blinking at her in total incomprehension.

The look Asami was giving Korra finally prompted the Avatar to take a deep breath and calm enough to articulate herself beyond random words strung together haphazardly, and Korra told Asami about what the spirit had said to her earlier.

After Korra finished, Asami continued to stare intently at Korra's face for any evidence that she was just joking or playing a really weird prank, but Korra's expression was just too genuinely serious for that to be the case. Asami even scooted over to the entrance of the Tree of Time and peered out of its opening to see if she could make out this stork, but saw nothing. A thousand different thoughts ran through Asami's head, but the one that fought its way to the forefront of her mind was, simply, _'how can Korra still think that storks bring babies? That's, like, still believing in the Tooth Fairy or Easter Jackalope!'_

But then Asami realized that maybe Korra really _didn't_ know very much about human reproductive systems – it's not like this was something that had opportunity to come up in conversation between them before, and they grew up under pretty different cultures during childhood.

Asami herself learned about it all in a classroom setting with a governess who specialized in biological sciences and there had been textbooks and diagrams and models and a multiple choice exam afterwards, and she was also cognizant that few girls were as privileged as she was in that regard to be born into a family able to afford such a high level of formalized education.

On the other hand, Asami also realized that part of the reason for her formal education was probably because her mother had died before she could talk to her about it, and her father likely felt too uncomfortable giving The Talk to her directly when she was old enough. Korra's parents, however, were alive and well and she had a strong relationship with both her mother and father; shouldn't one of them have told her about it by now?

Unless, maybe, discussions about such topics just weren't considered seemly in Southern Water Tribe cultural traditions? But, no, that didn't sound right either; from what Asami had seen of it (admittedly not very much), the Southern Water Tribe seemed quite open about this sort of thing - the extreme climate challenges at the ends of the earth bred a very practical sensibility amongst the people who lived there.

In any case, Asami realized that the best thing to do was to probably just ask Korra straight up, so she looked Korra firmly in the eye and said as carefully as she could, "Korra? You _do_ know that what you're talking about is biologically impossible, right? You _do_ know that there are, uh, certain key _requirements _to making babies, a very _obvious_ one of which we are kinda missing?"

Korra gave Asami a hooded glare. "I'm not an idiot, Asami." She said flatly. "I know how babies are made and I should like to think that at least one of us would have noticed last night if the other one was packing unexpected equipment. But the way this stork was talking!" Korra threw her hands up into the air in exasperation, "I dunno! It was all like, _'oh! Don't worry about that! I've got your back! Just don't tell my boss!'_" And then Korra gave Asami an overly exaggerated wink and a double thumbs up.

Asami couldn't help but laugh at Korra's comical posture.

"Don't laugh, Asami! This is serious!"

But the expression on Korra's face only prompted Asami to laugh some more and it was infectious and soon, most of the anxiety left Korra's brow and Asami opened her arms to draw Korra into a hug she only half-heartedly struggled against.

"You're just hugging me because you think I'm crazy, aren't you?" Korra muttered indignantly against Asami's neck.

"Not crazy, just..." Asami trailed off, chewing on her lip thoughtfully, not quite sure how best to say this to Korra. She tried to choose her words delicately, for Korra's sake, and also for her own, if she were to be perfectly honest about her own fears. "Are you sure this isn't just anxiety about… about last night?"

It was not so long ago, after all, that they had been only friends.

It was not so long ago, after all, that they had both been dating the same boy.

It was not so long ago, after all, that Asami realized that she had fallen head-over-heels _hard_ for Korra, the day when mere friendship became not enough.

And that moment had been when Korra had returned to Republic City after three years away, and Asami had wrapped her arms around Korra's shoulders in a hug and felt the strong, powerful frame of Korra's lithely muscled form pressed back against her own, when Asami's lower abdomen had clenched in an intense, even _painful_ seize, and declared to Asami's heart and Asami's brain, and all the rest of her, that absolutely under _no_ circumstance was she to _ever_ allow this person in her arms to leave her. _Ever. Again._

But Korra... Korra had let Asami know that she _hadn't_ had quite the same revelation, that she still could not quite exactly pinpoint what it was she was feeling for Asami, or even when she had started to feel this way for her, only that this feeling had been there for quite some time already.

And Asami had found this confession a little worrisome because loving someone, and being in love with them, was largely distinguished by one practical difference, so after spending their first couple of days vacationing in the Spirit World obsessing about it and worrying about it and agonizing about it, Asami had finally gathered her courage and simply kissed Korra to see if she would kiss her back.

One thing had then quickly led to another.

"Well, yeah. Haven't you been listening to me? This stupid bird is insinuating that I might have somehow magically knocked you up last night. But thaaaat's not what you're talking about, are you?" Korra peered at the complicated expression on Asami's face and suddenly, understanding dawned on her own. "Oh!" Korra quickly squeezed Asami's hands and gave her a crooked, reassuring smile. "Asami! Please! No! Please don't think that this is me freaking out because I regret being with you last night! Not at all! If anything, I...!" A blush rose in Korra's cheeks and she rubbed the back of her head somewhat sheepishly. "If not for this stupid spirit, I... I was hoping that maybe we might be able to... continue..."

Asami couldn't quite keep the megawatt smile from her face. She leaned forwards and caught Korra's lips with her own and before they knew it, they'd shuffled back into the sleeping bag.

After a moment, Korra ended the kiss and murmured, "... wait, Asami, please. I'm serious. Maybe we shouldn't. I mean, this stork said it noticed us because we're in its flight path. What if it comes back?"

Asami laughed. "Okay, let's pretend for a moment that I actually believe that babies get delivered by storks. If this is the case, and I'm already pregnant, then I can't get pregnant again, can I?"

And Korra thinks about this for a moment before a sheepish smile comes to her face and she leaned down to kiss Asami some more.

And Asami thought to herself, even as she eagerly reciprocated the kiss, that she would tell Korra that her menstrual cycle starts in three days, and that she was so regular she could set a clock by the reliably of her monthly visitor. '_That should put her mind at ease,' _Asami thought, even as Korra started nibbling on her throat, chasing the ability to formulate any more thoughts out of her higher mental faculties.

Three days later, when her cycle _doesn't_ begin as expected, Asami doesn't quite know how to break the news to Korra.

* * *

><p>AUTHOR'S NOTES:<p>

Sorry that this chapter is a little slow for a magical pregnancy crackfic. Hopefully the next one will be a bit more fun. =P

(Edit: This scene was originally written in present tense, and it's really bugging me so I've edited it to be past tense. Thank you for your patience.)

TBC


	3. My Idiot Cousin

In the tranquil still of the Spirit World's equivalent to an early morning sunrise, a pair of graceful, long-legged and slender-necked bird spirits quietly cleaned themselves and each other amongst the reeds growing at the edge of a pond with a surface so still, it mirrored the reddish blue sky with almost perfect clarity, making it seem as though the fish swimming in its waters were actually cavorting amongst the clouds above.

It was a scene of almost perfect calm, an oasis of zen, a vision of nirvana…

… until a giant gout of fire burst forth from out of nowhere, almost singeing one of the birds, and causing both of them to squawk loudly in alarm.

With absolutely no further warning, Korra burst out from the reeds, splashing noisily and grabbing both cranes by their necks, throttling them with a manic rage. "ALRIGHT, WHICH ONE OF YOU WAS IT?!" She shouted at one bird and then the other, a furious twitch about her left eye.

"Bleeeh!" Gurgled one of the birds, its eyes bulging from its face, even as it feebly flapped a wing at Korra's hand closed around its throat.

"Caaaan't! Breeeeathe!" Wheezed the other bird, its tongue spilling out from the side of its beak.

"Korra, stop!" Asami cried, splashing into the pond after the avatar and slapping at one of her hands, causing the other girl to drop one of the birds, who quickly and noisily flew away in a squawking panic.

Left eyebrow still twitching, Korra quickly adjusted her hold on her remaining captive so that she wasn't choking the poor thing while still maintaining a tight grip on it. "Alright, bird brain, talk if you know what's good for you! Were you the one who _delivered_ to us three days ago?! Tell me now! And if you try to say that it was actually your buddy who got away just now, then you'd best have a way of getting him back here!"

"What are you humans even talking about? I have no idea what's going on!" Insisted the bird spirit shrilly.

"Stop playing dumb!" Korra shouted. "We asked around – storks are the only spirits in the Spirit World who deliver baby souls and you storks all know and talk to one another!"

"Stork?" Cried the bird spirit, "what are you, blind?! I'm not a stork! I'm just a crane! Geez, don't you humans have any understanding of basic biology at all?!"

"Basic biology?!" Asami retorted, indignation clearly written all over her face. "One of you delivered a baby to two women!"

The crane was unrepentant. "Like I said, I'm not a stork! I'm just a crane! You've got the entirely wrong avian order, let alone family of bird! Ugh! Humans! How would you like it if I assaulted you for something a gorilla did?!"

Korra and Asami looked at each other awkwardly before hesitantly releasing the bird who coughed and rubbed its throat with its wing, giving both of them dirty looks before ruffling its feathers and settling down. "Now, what's this you say? A stork delivered a baby's soul to you when you didn't ask for it?" The bird rolled its eyes and seemed a bit disgusted with them. "Well I hate to break it to you kids but even if you didn't think what you were doing would result in pregnancy it obviously did because King Enma does not just give the go ahead to the storks unless the signal is very clear. Honestly, you humans! If you don't want babies, then why would you even try to flag down the storks' attention in the first place? Is it fun or something?! If you're gonna do it then you'd better be prepared for the consequences! Hmph!"

Korra looked about ready to explode while Asami simply buried her head in her hands in exasperation like she couldn't believe she was even having this conversation. It took a while for Korra to calm down enough to say as patiently as she could to the bird, "but King Enma legitimately didn't give the go ahead in our case. The stork who made the delivery even commented to me that, uh, our signal," and Korra couldn't help but blush a little here, "wasn't quite right and didn't get past King Enma. He just… I dunno." Korra traded a significant look with Asami, "thought that he was doing us a favor, I guess."

The crane eyed the both of them suspiciously. "It would have to take a complete idiot of a stork to go above King Enma's head and do that." It said flatly. And then it sighed and covered its eyes with a wing in shame, shaking its head in disbelief. "… and that sounds exactly like my idiot cousin, Botan. Good grief."

Asami frowned. "I thought you said you were a crane."

"I am a crane. And so is Botan." Said the bird spirit flatly. "He's just always fancied himself to be stork material and applied for a Shinigami soul-delivery license. He failed the final exam 178 times before finally passing it during all that excitement with the creation of the third spirit portal. Everything was in an uproar and if you ask me, he probably used that chaos as an opportunity to cheat! Raava! I can't believe King Emma actually gave him his license!"

Korra blinked very slowly as she considered what the spirit in front of her was saying. "Wait, what? Are you saying that Asami's pregnant because... because I created a third spirit portal and changed the way the world works?"

The crane gave Korra a weird look. "You created the third spirit portal?" He gave a sharp laugh. "Who are you, the Avatar?"

Korra gave the spirit a hooded look. "…"

The crane squinted at Korra. "Oh! You are the Avatar! Wow!" Suddenly, the bird seemed a bit flustered and maybe even star-struck. "Oh! Oh wow! I can't believe I got roughed up by the Avatar! Oh, this is so exciting! Wait 'til Botan hears about this! Hah! Oh, hey, Avatar! My name is Cramer! Can I get your autograph?"

Korra gave the spirit – Cramer – a very irritated look. "Maybe not now, Cramer. But, listen, can you help us out please? We need to talk to Botan. We have to get him to reverse this delivery! It shouldn't have happened in the first place!"

Cramer cocked his head to the side. "Well… I'm not sure if Botan can do anything about that. He is just a lowly crane passing himself off as a stork after all. You might have to talk to King Enma directly about that." The bird spirit thought about it for a while. "Tell you what? Why don't you go directly to King Enma, and I'll go get Botan and bring him there too. Maybe you'll all be able to sort it out together?"

Korra and Asami gave each other a look before Asami shrugged somewhat helplessly. "Well, at this point, I guess it's worth a shot?"

* * *

><p>AUTHOR'S NOTES:<p>

Sorry for the short chapters; I'm just trying to do something new and push a scene out every day or two. This story is just a fun little break for me while I am also working on longer projects. ^_^;;

Thank you for reading anyway!

(Edit: This scene was originally written in present tense, and it's really bugging me so I've edited it to be past tense. Thank you for your patience.)

Cheers,

jen-chan


	4. Korra! I'm Late!

On the morning after the night when Asami's cycle was supposed to start but didn't, she gently rebuffed Korra's advances for intimacy when the avatar started nuzzling against her neck and gave her that hooded-eye bedroom look that had, up until that point anyway, succeeded in sending Asami's heart (and lower organs) all a-flutter with arousal without fail.

"Maybe not right now?" Asami said softly, reluctantly, giving Korra an apologetic smile and hoping that her face wasn't betraying the torrid of stress she was feeling inside.

Korra looked a little disappointed for a moment, before she smiled her crooked little smile, and gave Asami a kiss on the cheek instead. She laughed brightly. "I guess we've sort of been over-doing it, huh?"

Asami could only reply with a tiny smile and shrug.

They got out of the sleeping bag and got ready for the day. Over breakfast, Korra asked Asami what she wanted to do, and Asami replied that she honestly didn't know, which was an out-of-character enough response that it caused Korra to give her a quizzical look; usually, Asami was quite decisive – an attribute she had had to developed after finding herself the head of Future Industries.

So they spent the day leisurely walking around and exploring the sights and just getting to know the spirit world, like they'd done during the first few days of their vacation (before they'd gotten so caught up in exploring and getting to know _each another_). But despite the amazing and stunning other-worldliness of the psychedelic glowing fields of neon pink grasses waving back and forth, or the majesty of the thousand foot floating waterfall that somehow defied all laws of physics and doubled-back on itself, or the heart-warming playfulness of the family of dragonfly bunny spirits, Asami just couldn't quite enjoy herself, couldn't let herself get lost in the joy of the moment, because she just couldn't stop thinking about why her period was late when it had always arrived within an hour of her expectations, _always,_ every month of her life since her mid-teens.

And despite Asami's best efforts to keep her worries from Korra, the other girl noticed it, but couldn't really do anything about it, since Asami just couldn't bring herself to say what was really bothering her, no matter how many different ways Korra tried to ask her about it.

So Korra kept coming up with different suggestions for things they could do, obviously trying to take whatever was on Asami's mind off of it, and Korra's face brightened up as a legitimately amazing idea came to her. "Hey, why don't we go swimming? We could go down that waterfall together - like a slide! I bet it would be a lot of fun!"

Asami frowned. "I… don't know if I want to do that."

"Why not? It'll be alright. I promise to keep you totally safe."

"It's not that," Asami hedged. "I just don't really feel like swimming."

Korra looked confused. "But I thought you loved swimming."

"Normally, but not… not right now. Not for these couple of days," Asami tried to say discretely. She was still really hoping that she was just making a massive mountain out of a mole-hole and maybe it was just some sort of stress that was messing with her cycle and it would start anytime now, and if that was the case, it would be super gross and embarrassing and just all around _'eeew!'_ if she was playing around with Korra in water when it happened.

_'__Yes, that's right',_ Asami tried to tell herself again, for the nth time. It was just stupid stress and anxiety lingering from Korra's stupid story about some stupid stork. Her period would start aaaaany time now, yup, and she'll never be so happy to see it again in her life because she _couldn't _be knocked up, no way, no how. It just wasn't humanly possible.

_'__But you're not *in* the human world,'_some traitorous part of Asami's mind gleefully reminded the rest of her, and Asami tried her best to squash down that pesky, observant voice in her head.

Peering at the expression on Asami's face carefully, Korra's eyebrows suddenly shot up to her hairline as she understood. A lightbulb might as well have gone off over the avatar's head with an audible 'bing!', but unfortunately, her conclusion was a little bit off.

"Oh! Ooooh! No watersports. Gotcha. We can do something else." The smile of relief that came onto Korra's face could only be best be described as _god-thanking_, and, impulsively, she reached out and gave Asami a completely random hug before quickly releasing her.

Asami looked at Korra worriedly. "What was that for?"

Korra rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I just… remember how silly I was being a few days back when I told you about that stork? I'm just..." She laughed lightly. "I guess I was just still kinda worrying about it a little. Sorry Asami – I guess that was pretty idiotic of me."

Then Korra took Asami's hand and continued walking forward, pointing out some of the local sights, and Asami could only silently stare at the back of Korra's head in abject horror. A new type of awful started to gnaw at her insides: guilt.

"Oh hey, if watersports are out of the question, how'd you feel about _air_sports?"

One thing led to another and before long, Asami found herself with the neck of a giant orangey-red dragon-phoenix between her legs, trying to steer it with nothing more than two fists clutched full of feathery scales, Korra sitting behind her.

Asami grit her teeth and tried to not scream in panic; how she ended up being the default driver in all their situations was beyond her. Bikes, cars, planes and mecha-suits she could handle, but lizards, polar-dogs, and sky bison were an entirely different animal – _literally_.

Still, as they soared leisurely up high in the sky, and looked down at the expanse of the spirit world stretching out below them, and Asami felt Korra's arms tighten securely around her waist as if to say, '_hey, don't worry, I've got you'_, and felt the warmth from Korra's body pressed against her back and felt Korra lay the side of her face down on one of her shoulders, sighing in contentment, Asami couldn't help but let a small smile come onto her face and think,_ 'hey… maybe everything's going to be alright after all.'_

Unfortunately, that was when a piece of cloud accidentally got stuck in the dragon-phoenix's left nostril and the spirit gave a mighty sneeze, bucking its passengers right off of its back and sending Korra and Asami flailing through the air screaming at the top of their lungs.

Korra managed to reach out and grab a hold of one of Asami's hands, pulling her in. "ASAMI!" Korra cried, desperately fighting against the air currents rushing up past her to be heard, "HANG ON!" Gritting her teeth in effort, Korra tried to bend the currents rushing all around them, creating a pocket of air beneath them, trying to slow their descent as much as possible.

"IT'S GOING TO BE OKAY!" Korra cried, frantically trying to further manipulate the air around them.

Asami kept a death-grip on Korra's hand and tried to not let the panic get to her but the unnerving rushing/falling sensation was everywhere she turned her attention, through her hair, on her mind, in her heart, her lungs, her stomach, and she couldn't quite control herself. "KORRA! I HAVE TO TELL YOU SOMETHING!"

Korra snuck a bewildered half-a-glance at Asami. "REALLY?! CAN IT WAIT?! I'M A LITTLE BUSY RIGHT NOW!"

And Asami tried to reign in that panic, squeezed her eyes shut tightly and tried to not notice how quickly the ground was rushing up to meet them, tried to keep her teeth locked together, triedohfuckit, "I'M LATE!"

"WHAT?!"

"MY PERIOD! I'M _LATE_!"

And despite the fact that they were going to be smooshed into tiny little pancakes in very short order, Korra was shocked enough to stop bending and stare at Asami in absolute disbelief. The little pocket of air she'd been making to cushion their landing with completely dissipated into nothing.

For the next very crucial 4.56 seconds, neither of them could do anything except stare at each other dumbly before Asami noticed that the ground was a lot closer than it previously had been and screamed, "KORRA! THE GROUND!"

And then Korra looked down but by then it was too late to re-bend their safety air-cushion and all she could do was yank Asami towards her, _hard,_ crushing Asami into a tight embrace against her chest and angling their descent so that Korra would meet the ground first.

Asami squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face against Korra's chest as the end came upon them.

At the last possible moment, Korra went into the avatar state and magnificent wheels of air, water, earth and fire burst into existence, ringing around them protectively. Air and fire whirled furiously about to create a pocket of cushioning, even as the earth in the ground itself rumble to life and a column of it burst upwards, mingling with water to soften into a sort of muddy catching mitt that cradle them and took the majority of the impact before oozing back into the ground.

Releasing the avatar state, Korra laid on her back on the muddy ground they should have become splattered smears against, her arms still protectively wrapped around Asami, cradled her head and curled-up body almost possessively against her chest, refusing to let her go for anything.

They lay there for a long time, stunned into silent and stillness, unable to believe what had just happened.

Then Korra said, weakly, "Are you okay?"

It took a while for Asami to find her words. "Y-Yes. I'm okay."

"Good. Because I think I'm going to faint."

And then she promptly did.

* * *

><p>Author's note:<p>

c mentioned in a comment on ao3 about wanting to read about Asami confirming to Korra that she was indeed pregnant.

At first, I hadn't planned on actually detailing this scene because in my head it played out not as cracky/fluffy/funny as I was hoping to keep this fic, but then I thought, 'no, c is right – I should show this scene.' So here you go. Thank you for the feedback, c! ^_^

Please pretend that this scene comes before "My Idiot Cousin."

Also... I've switched to past tense. Present tense just wasn't coming naturally to me enough to be able to write it quickly. =_= Thanks for the patience, guys!


	5. Administration of the Mortal Coil

It had been easy enough to find their way to King Enma's location; Korra had taken Asami's hands gently in her own and asked her to close her eyes. When Asami had reopened them, she had found herself in an entirely different place from the pond where they had assaulted Cramer in rage-induced misunderstanding.

Asami couldn't help but be impressed. Korra had once explained to her that while visiting the spirit world in spirit form, she could move her consciousness around simply by thinking about where it was she wanted to go. Since they were here physically, this shouldn't have been possible, but they had discovered earlier on in their vacation that Korra could achieve something similar by going into the avatar state while in the spirit world; rather than moving herself to where she needed to go, she could sort of _bend_ the spirit world's physical rules and make where she wanted to go come to _her_.

And where they were was what looked like a giant hall with a bank of stations along one side, not entirely un-similar to the lobby of City Hall in the heart of Republic City. Asami and Korra were on one end of the room. At the other end loomed a massive half skeleton/half bird spirit, roosting behind an impressive desk, who could only be King Enma himself.

King Enma was a massive, maaaassive spirit whose frightful countenance and sheer size made Asami feel a bit uncomfortable as she gazed up at him in awe. The spirit in charge of the administration of reincarnation had to be at least thirty stories tall; at least as tall as Kuvira's mech that had devastated so much of Republic City, and he took the form of a black-colored, long-necked bird (very much like a stork save for his pitch black color) on his left side, while his right side was that of a bony bleached-white skeleton; as though someone had taken that half of the bird and removed all of his flesh.

"That's gotta be him," Korra murmured softly, and Asami nodded quietly. They shared a glance before navigating through the crowds, walking purposefully towards the spirit.

The place was busy, but rather than people, of course, it was filled with all manner of spirits - walking, crawling, rolling, flying, floating, oozing forward and otherwise going about their business, many of them holding what looked like paperwork in their hands/claws/mouths/other-assorted-orifices as they waited their turn at the various stations. Looking up, Asami noticed that every once in a while, spirits in the shape of long-necked birds, some white, some black, would fly overhead.

They made their way towards King Enma in silence.

A little ways away from King Enma, a spirit that looked a little like a bluish blob of slime wearing glasses stopped them. It gave them a once-over and seemed a bit annoyed to see them. "How can I help you humans?" It asked peevishly.

"Yeah. I'm Korra, the Avatar, and this is my girlfriend Asami Sato." Since her attention was focused on the blob-spirit, Korra didn't see the slightly surprised but pleased look Asami was giving the back of her head at the title she'd identified her by. "I'd like to talk to King Enma."

The blob-spirit held out a jelly tentacle expectantly. "Appointment?"

Korra frowned. "Uh... we don't have one. We didn't realize we needed to make one."

The blob-spirit rolled its eyes. "If I had a dime every time I heard that one! Listen! This is _King Enma_ we're talking about here! Do you think you can just walk up to him and talk to him without an appointment?"

Korra looked up at the massive spirit. Impressive as he looked, he also appeared to just be sitting there. "Well... he doesn't look like he's very busy at the moment."

The blob-spirit was scandalized. "What?! How _dare_ you! King Enma is in charge of the Administration of the entire Mortal Coil! Every soul coming into and out of the afterlife has to go through him! He processes the souls of dozens of spirit every second of every minute of every day! If you want to talk to him, you're going to have to make an appointment!"

"Fine!" Korra replied in exasperation. "When can we see him?"

The blob-spirit consulted its clipboard. "His next free time slot is 2,381 days from now."

Korra and Asami both boggled. "What?! We can't wait that long! That's... that's more than 6 years from now! Asami and I have to deal with this right now! You see, one of your storks delivered a baby's soul to us a few days ago but he shouldn't have!"

"Oh, for the love of Raava! You two are just another pair of stupid humans who aren't willing to take responsibility for their own actions, aren't you?! USE PROTECTION! It's not our fault if you knock your girlfriend up!"

"But that's not the situation here!" Asami responded quickly back, realizing that they would have to change the way they were explaining themselves to get through to the blob. "Listen! Korra and I couldn't possibly have conceived in the first place because we are both women, as I sure hope you can tell from just _looking_ at us! This stork delivered a soul to us _without_ King Enma's approval!"

"What's impossible!" The blob-spirit insisted. "We run a tight ship here in the Administration of the Mortal Coil! We have processes and controls and sign-offs all over the place! You see this here?" It pulled a clipboard from out of nowhere and shoved it in Asami's face. "We make sure one of these checklists gets filled out and signed for every single conception out there and this form must be filed back here with the Administration before the next soul in queue is released to a stork for delivery!"

Out of habit more than anything, as she _was_ the CEO of a large company and often found herself inundated with reports shoved in her face, Asami found herself speed reading through the checklist, which actually did include such sensible items as, 'has only 1 spermatozoa fertilized the ovum Y/N?' and 'do both spermatozoa and ovum contain 23 chromosomes Y/N?' and 'is the uterus sufficiently lined Y/N?'

The blob took his clipboard back and sniffed haughtily. "The entire process takes on average anywhere from 14-20 weeks to ensure all proper reviews and authorizations have been completed and King Enma's seal must be affixed in the bottom right hand corner of this form before it can be taken to the queue for soul selection and delivery! And, Honey," the blob looked at Asami critically from over the top of its rimmed glasses, "there is _no_ way you are 3-5 months pregnant if I do say so myself."

Asami and Korra were very confused as they looked at each other.

"But... but he was there." Korra could only repeat herself, almost meekly (almost). "I saw him. I spoke with him. He said he'd just finished delivering the baby's soul. Botan was _there_."

_'__DID YOU SAY 'BOTAN'?'_

A deep voice thundered through the hall, almost blowing out Korra and Asami's ears. They looked over in the direction the voice was coming from, and they realized that one of King Enma's massive eyes – the one on the flesh-covered side of his face – had swiveled in its socket to focus down at Korra and Asami.

Even though his beak hadn't moved at all, King Enma was speaking.

"Uh... yeah! Yes! YES!" Korra said, growing in confidence, suddenly realizing that they had gotten the attention of the King of Hell himself.

A gust of wind suddenly blew through the hall, whipping both Asami and Korra's hair about wildly. This was accompanied by a rumbling sensation going through the floor that was the unmistakable sound of someone sighing in exasperation.

_'__WHAT DID HE DO THIS TIME?'_


	6. Let's Keep It?

Korra and Asami looked down at the blob-spirit, who could only give an angry _humph!_ before waving them through to see the almighty King Enma, who now fixed both of his steely blue eyes upon them.

_'__SPEAK! WHAT DID BOTAN DO NOW?'_

Though King Enma's beak never moved, his deep authoritative voice could easily be heard throughout the entire hall. Indeed, spirits of all shapes and sizes stopped whatever it was they were doing to look over at him curiously as he addressed the pair of humans in front of him.

Asami recovered first and she gave Korra a look to say, _'I've got this'_.

"King Enma, thank you for seeing us on short notice. I'm sorry to have to trouble you to attend to this matter personally, but, you see, Korra and I are at a bit of a loss here. A few days ago, one of your storks delivered a baby's soul to me because we think he thought that we were signaling for him."

_"__AND WERE YOU?"_

"Um, well, if by that you mean if we were..." Asami couldn't help but blush a little. "If we were having sex, then yes, we were, but King Enma, there's no way that that intimacy could have been construed as trying to conceive! I mean, it shouldn't even be _possible_; Korra and I are both female!"

King Enma's voice was flat. _"I CAN SEE THAT."_

"Oh. Um. Well, that's good." For a while there, Asami had almost wondered if maybe something was actually wrong with hers and Korra's (and the rest of human society's) understanding of how human reproduction worked, since it seemed like no one in the spirit world seemed to be batting an eye at their situation. "So, since we're all on the same page about that, then there's no way we could have gotten through that application review. There's no way you would have authorized this soul to be delivered. So please, King Enma, can you just... reverse this delivery? As though Botan never delivered it to me in the first place?"

But even as these words left Asami's lips, she couldn't help but feel a strange sort of quivering in her heart that turned into a strange sort of dull ache, accompanied by a slight lurching sensation, as though some part of her was sighing. And it took Asami a little while to realize what those sensations might have been...

... Asami looked over at Korra...

_'... regret...?'_

But before Asami could act on this realization of her feelings, there was a booming roar in the room.

_'BOTAN!'_

All of a suddenly, a mini cyclone appeared just behind Korra and Asami and out of it dropped two long-necked birds who appeared to be in the middle of beating the crap out of each other. Asami recognized one to be Cramer; the other one she assumed had to be the wanna-be-stork who had caused this mess in the first place.

"Quit fighting me, Bro!" Cramer was grunting as he had Botan in a headlock. "You're coming with me and that's the end of it!"

"Oof! Whaddaya-! Get _off_ of me, Cramer!" Botan was squawking shrilly as he tried to fight his cousin off, "I _can't_ go! I'll be in soooo much trouble if they-!"

_'BOTAN!' _Roared King Enma.

Both birds tussling on the ground suddenly bolted upright, quivering in fear. Cramer's eyes were the size of dinner plates as though he had no idea where he was and how he had gotten there, while Botan's eyes were just as equally wide, though the knowledge of exactly where he was and why he was there was very clearly exhibited in the horrified expression on the rest of his face.

"Oh! H-Hi, King Enma! H-How are you doing today?" Botan stuttered, casually taking a step back and dropping to cower underneath one of Cramer's wings.

"Hey what are you doing?!" Cramer hissed in panic at his cousin, but Botan refused to budge for his hiding spot.

_'DID YOU OR DID YOU NOT DELIVER A SOUL TO THIS HUMAN WOMAN WITHOUT MY APPROVAL?'_

Botan peeked out from under Cramer's wings to look at Asami and Korra and back to Asami. "Aaah! Well! Um! You see, my Lord, you were just so busy, and I-"

_'ANSWER THE QUESTION, YOU FOOL!'_

The bird gave a squawk of despair and tried to disappear into the floor. "Y-Yes sir! I m-may have missed a few steps in the process! But! Um! In my defense, it was because I knew they must've really, really, _really_ wanted kids and I just felt so _sorry_ for them because none of their signals were making it through and-!"

"Aaaah! W-what are you talking about, you stupid bird?!" Blushing furiously, Korra grabbed Botan by his neck and yanked him out from under Cramer's wing, throttling him. "We never said we wanted kids!"

Botan was turning a little purple from Korra's throttling but he still managed to struggle out, "but you two were summoning for it so _hard_ and for so _long!_"

Asami turned beet red while Korra continued to make strangled noises of outrage until she realized she had to release the poor bird before she killed it.

The blob-spirit slapped one of his tentacles against his face in long suffering disbelief. "Dammit all Botan! Don't you remember _anything_ from the shinigami reference books?! You can't just look for copulating couples! There's way more to soul-summoning than two people boinking!"

"But, Bob!" Botan whined weakly, "those textbooks were so long and dry and boring and they didn't even have any pictures!"

The blue blob-spirit's glasses almost fell off of its non-existent nose in flabbergast. "You haven't even read the instructional manuals?! How have you been figuring out how to do your job these last few weeks?!_" _

"Oh, well, you know..." Botan pushed his index feathers together sheepishly, "I've sort of just been, um, using professional judgement and stuff, and, oh!" He brightened up. "I do have some good reference materials!" Botan reached into a satchel that no one had realized he'd been carrying and pulled out a stack of thin booklets which were nothing more than sheets of photocopied paper stapled together with pictures on the covers.

Taking the booklets from the bird, Bob the blue blob-spirit skimmed through them before his eyes bulged from his head and he threw the booklets away in absolutely disbelief.

(Unable to contain their curiosity, Korra ended up picking up the booklets while Asami looked over one of her shoulders. They both recoiled when they realized the "reference materials" consisted entirely of smutty fanfiction ranging from relatively benign fluff to some truly kinky and really out-there situations, including but not limited to mpreg, magical penises and something called futanari - whatever that was. Korra remained perturbed for quite some time after letting the booklets fall from her grasp in shock, but Asami found herself getting over her initial shock rather quickly and maybe felt just a liiiiiittle bit intrigued by a couple of the titles. But anyway.)

"Oh my god. Oh my fucking god." The blob-spirit moaned, burying his face in his tentacles. "I'm going to have to go over every single one of the deliveries you've ever made, aren't I?!" He lunged at the bird and started to throttle him again. "YOU STUPID! CRAZY! CRANE!"

_'ENOUGH!'_ Boomed King Enma._ 'PUNISHING BOTAN DOES NOT RESOLVE THE ISSUE AT HAND THOUGH REST ASSURED HE *WILL* BE DISCIPLINED IN DUE COURSE.'_

Eventually, the uproar died down enough for Korra to speak up.

"So what can we do about this situation, King Enma?" Korra finally asked. She shared a complicated look with Asami, before looking back up at the Head of the Administration of the Mortal Coil again. "Is there anyway you can reverse this?"

_'I CANNOT. I AM AFRAID THERE IS NO MECHANISM BY WHICH TO REVERSE DELIVERIES; A SOUL DELIVERED CANNOT BE UNDELIVERED.'_

"I... see."

Asami watched Korra's face as she took this news in but, beyond her brow furrowing, Korra didn't seem to have any other overtly negative reactions to the news. Instead, Korra turned her gaze back onto Asami, and as their eyes locked, Asami realized that a thousand different thoughts were racing through Korra's mind, much like the complicated miasma she was feeling in her own heart.

"Well, hang on a moment here," Bob the blue blob-spirit interrupted, "King Enma, we may not have a way of undoing a delivery here in the Administration, but don't humans have ways of withdrawing their summons themselves? I know they _must_, because it happens sometimes. After we go through all the trouble of approving the summons properly, sometimes when the stork goes to deliver the soul, the receptacle for the delivery just isn't even _there_ anymore. In such cases, since the stork is unable to make the delivery, it simply returns to the Administration and we divert the soul back to the front of the queue for the next properly approved summons. Why don't we just... do that for this case?"

_'LIFE STARTS WHEN A SOUL HAS BEEN DELIVERED. AN UNDELIVERED SOUL IS NOT ALIVE AND CAN THUS BE __RETURN TO THE FRONT OF THE QUEUE. IN THIS CASE HOWEVER, ALTHOUGH IT WAS DELIVERED FAR EARLIER THAN IT EVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN, NONE THE LESS, THE SOUL HAS INDEED BEEN DELIVERED. ONCE LIFE HAS BEGUN, DEATH IS THE ONLY MEANS BY WHICH THE SOUL CAN LEAVE THE MORTAL COIL.'_

"Yes, I get that," argued the blob-spirit, "but King Enma... we... we _really_ messed up here! To call the circumstances under which this baby was made _conception_ is the same as having a human become pregnant after eating a banana. Or gardening. Or filing her taxes. This would be an immaculate conception, and I know you _hate_ it when one of those happen! It makes us here in the Administration look really, really _stupid_. Can't we just look the other way? We can get the shinigami to pay extra-attention for the death of this soul, so we can slide them right back into the front of the queue, set them up with a nice family, and no one would have to be the wiser?"

King Enma was silent as he considered this.

Finally the giant skeletal bird-spirit closed his eyes, and another sigh rumbled through the halls of the Administration of the Mortal Coil again.

_'THIS IS AN ACCEPTABLE SOLUTION TO ME. IS THIS AN ACCEPTABLE SOLUTION TO YOU, AVATAR AND ASAMI SATO? SHOULD YOU REALLY NOT WISH TO HAVE THIS CHILD, WE SHALL TREAT IT THE SAME AS ANY OTHER UNSUCCESSFUL DELIVERY.'_

Both Asami and Korra's eyes widened as the weight of King Enma's words sunk into them and they stared at each other, stunned.

Asami found herself opening and closing her mouth a few times, but couldn't quite get any words to come out of her mouth. Seeing how flustered she was, Korra looked up at King Enma and said, "excuse us," before taking Asami by the hand and leading her a little ways away for some privacy.

Despite all the different thoughts fighting for her attention, Asami noticed in the back of her mind that Korra continued to hold her hand the entire time as she said, gently, "Asami? So... what's it going to be?"

"Korra..." Asami trailed off, the heavily conflicted emotions she was feeling very clear in her voice. "I... I don't know. I mean, for the last couple of days, I just wanted confirmation that I _wasn't_ pregnant, but now, knowing that I actually _am_..." She trailed off. "I don't know, Korra. I just don't know. What do you think?"

Korra gave Asami a complicated look. "I... I don't know either." She said in a small voice. "I kinda feel the same way. The last couple of days, I've just been feeling like this entire situation was some sort of mistake that had to get fixed, but..."

In the distance, Botan was weeping noisily and tearfully. "Nooooo!" He wailed as he blew his nostrils against Cramer's tail feathers, much to his cousin's disgust. "I _know _they'll like them! I picked them out myself! They'll _love'_em!"

"Geez, get a _hold_ of yourself, Botan!" Cramer grumped, trying to shake his cousin off his backside. "This wasn't your call to make!"

"But I know they want them! They do!" Botan wailed miserably. "They _have_ to! You can't make love like that and _not_ want to be together with each other as _one_! And that's what children do! They make you _one_!"

"Oh, god, Botan, shut UP!" Bob groaned. "Love is neither a requirement nor a reason for the creation of children! It's nowhere on the soul delivery checklist!"

"But it _should_ be!" Botan insisted. "And it should be the _only_ thing on that checklist!"

"Geez! Do you always have to be such a bleeding romantic all the time, you crazy crane?!"

"I'm a stork, dammit! I passed that exam fair and square!"

Sweatdrops appeared over both Korra and Asami's heads as they couldn't help but totally overhear the squabbling of the spirits standing just a little ways from them. Korra's left eyebrow started to twitch wildly again and she looked like she wanted to airbend a tornado into existence and blow them all away.

But before Korra could delay their decision-making with some violence, something that the idiot stork that had put them into this situation in the first place said managed to reach deep inside Asami's heart and _squeeze_.

And Asami found herself reaching out and grasping Korra's fist, turning the avatar's attention back onto her.

Korra blinked confusedly at Asami, still clearly agitated by the distractions from the peanut gallery.

"Korra." Asami took a very deep breath. "I... I know we _just_ started going out, and this whole situation is one completely ridiculous mistake, but, it's also the equivalent of an honest-to-goodness_ miracle_. This isn't something that's ever going to happen to us - _for_ us - again. And I mean, if we're still together 5 or 10 years or 15 years from now, we might really regret it if we couldn't see this mistake for the opportunity it might actually be."

And as Asami said this, she watched as the irritation and anxiety and worry slowly lifted off of Korra's brow as she considered her words, until she was looking at Asami with an expression on her face that could only be called awe.

Korra swallowed, and licked her lips. Her voice was very tiny. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Asami couldn't stop the hints of a blush from rising in her cheeks. "I... I think I am."

She gave Korra's hands a tight squeeze.

"Let's keep it."

* * *

><p>AN:

Thank you to everyone who's taken the time to leave a review or a fav or a follow! I really appreciate it! ^_^ (Thanks Hecate, Emma & Guest - you guys don't seem to have ffnet accounts, so I can't PM my thanks to you directly, so this is the best I can do!)

I've been updating this fic every day for the last week, and I'll try my best to maintain this sched but I don't know how realistic that's going to be. lol. ^_^ This particular chapter is double the size of the normal offering because I might not be able to post tomorrow. Just a heads up!

Cheers,

jen-chan


	7. Progression in Polar-dog Years

**A/N:** Sorry - not too much humour in this one. Just fluff.

* * *

><p>It was the last day of their vacation, and Korra and Asami were spending their last few hours in a pastel purple meadow, just in front of the spirit portal back to Republic City. Asami was sitting with her legs stretched out, her back leaned against a tree, while Korra was resting her head in Asami's lap. They had been silent for the last little while, lost in their own thoughts, before Korra looked up at Asami and asked softly, "so... how do you want to tell people?"<p>

Asami considered this as she idly played with a lock of Korra's hair. "I'm not sure we should tell anyone yet; I think you're supposed to wait a few months, until the riskiest period for miscarriage is over, you know, to avoid potentially awkward future conversations. At least, that's what one of my employees told me when she was expecting."

Korra smiled softly. That wasn't what she had been trying to get at, but she could understand why Asami had automatically went there right away. Taking one of Asami's hands, the one that was playing with her bangs, Korra gave it a gentle kiss on a knuckle. "Actually, I meant about _us_. I totally agree; we shouldn't mention the baby yet, but how do you want to tell people about, you know, _us_. Being together?"

It still seemed stupidly incredible to Korra how quickly everything had happened. They'd just been on the cusp of romance when they'd started their vacation to the spirit world a scant 10 days ago, and at the time, as she had stood at the spirit portal holding Asami's hands and gazing quietly into Asami's eyes, Korra hadn't even realized what that fluttering sensation in the pit of her stomach had meant; how her feelings for Asami had progressed past the arena of friendship.

And now, a little more than a week later, they found themselves talking about their future _child_ together. Korra had once heard some folks in her tribe joke about how same-gendered relationships seemed to progress in polar-dog years, that is, at 7 times the speed of opposite-gendered relationships – but this was a little ridiculous even by those standards.

_'__But then again,'_ something amused in the back of Korra's mind said to her languidly, _'that's just how the math works out when the day you give your virginity to one another also turns out to be the day you catch the attention of a trigger-happy, baby-slinging, wanna-be stork.' _

Asami's eyes had crinkled happily at the corners at Korra's casually sweet gesture. They now blinked in surprise as she took in Korra's words before the smile on her face turned slightly embarrassed and she looked away from Korra sheepishly. "Um, well, I'm not sure if people don't_ already_ know about us..."

Korra's eyes widened as she felt more than just a little bit shocked at this confession (well, not nearly as shocked as when she had discovered that she was going to be a mommy, but, hey, few of life's discoveries could ever possibly top _that_). "What? Who could know? I mean, _we_ didn't even know about _us_ until halfway into this vacation!"

Asami gave Korra a weak smile. "Well... Mako might have a clue for one."

"W-What?!" Korra sat upright and gave Asami a look of alarm. Of all people - Mako? _Really?_ "Oh, _wow,_ how did _that_ happen?"

"Korra, Mako was the one who helped me figure out what it was I was feeling for you before I could even admit it to myself in the first place! Do you remember when you first came back to Republic City? And we kinda had that little fight at the sushi restaurant over my father? And Mako asked what was going on between us?"

A light-bulb threatened to flicker on over Korra's head as she nodded. She remembered that conversation. At the time, she hadn't quite figured out what it was, but there had definitely been a certain _something_ about that conversation that had tweaked at Korra's heart, and had told her that something - she wasn't sure exactly what - but _something_ was up between her and Asami.

"Well, apparently, Prince Wu of all people noticed how we were acting and told Mako over a boxing match the next day that he thought it was really big of him that he was so chill with the fact that his ex-girlfriends were into each other. That night, Mako asked if he could come over and talk to me about it so... we did."

How it was possible that Korra's eyes could get any bigger at that point was a complete mystery. "Oh, wow." Korra murmured. "Just... _wow._" Korra looked away from Asami for a second, down at her own hands as she absorbed this. Though she knew it was indelicate to ask, Korra couldn't help herself.

"How... how did that conversation go?"

Asami's smile continued to be on the embarrassed side. "It went... well, all things considered, it actually went really, really well. I mean, at first, I tried to deny it, and I told him he was crazy, but even as I was saying it to him, both of us knew that I was lying, and he just... he just gave me a hug and told me that he loved us both and would always support us no matter what. And he actually said to me, _'don't let her get away from *both* of us.'"_ Then Asami's smile grew fond as she remembered that night. "He was pretty damn amazing, actually."

As Asami told Korra the story, Korra couldn't help but suddenly feel a lump come into her throat.

Suddenly, her first love's comments to her during Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding came back to her, and Korra could almost hear Mako's words in the back of her head, the heartfelt but also bittersweet quality about his voice suddenly making complete and utter sense in a way it never had in her heart:

_You don't need to say anything. I want you to know, I'll follow you into battle no matter how crazy things get. I've got your back. And I always will. _

Korra swallowed back that lump of emotion in her throat, even as she gave Asami a weak smile, her insides all a twist:

As much as Mako had been telling her how he loved her, he had also been giving her his blessing to be with someone else.

_'Oh... oh Mako. How do I... how do I ever even begin to *thank* you?'_

And the small smile that Asami gave her back told Korra that Asami was feeling the exact same way.

They shared another hug.

They were silent for a while after that, before Korra eventually found her voice again and said softly, "well, if Mako's the only one who knows, then everyone else probably still doesn't. He's not the kind of guy who would go around spreading the news."

Asami nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right. It's not Mako I'm worried about so much as Prince Wu. Hopefully he didn't get a chance to be a little birdy in too many people's ears before he went back to Ba Sing Se."

Korra laughed. "Well, we can hope." There was a short lull in the conversation before Korra finally said, "I guess we can just... play it by ear? And let folks know as it comes up naturally?"

Asami nodded. "That sounds good to me."

"Alright then." Korra paused. "But there's one person I think we should probably talk to right away. About the baby, I mean. I think we should go see Kya sooner rather than later, so she can, you know, check up on you. She's a healer, so we can trust her to be discrete."

"That's probably a good idea." Asami gave Korra an amused look. "And I gotta admit, some of what King Enma and Botan and Bob were saying still doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I keep trying to figure out what the equivalent of a _'receptacle'_ is in terms of human physiology, and I'm drawing a blank. But can we go see her the day after? I've got a bunch of stuff to get to at the office tomorrow."

Korra wrinkled her nose. "Do we have to start thinking about work already?"

Asami laughed. "Hey, someone's gotta bring the bacon home if we want to give the baby a good future! And being the Avatar isn't exactly a paying gig."

Korra scoffed in affront. "Hey! Raising kids isn't all about money you know!"

"I know, silly." Asami gave Korra a quick kiss on the lips to sooth back her indignity. "What _I_ do might provide people with a means to carve out a life in this world, but what _you_ do makes this world a place worth carving a life out _in_."

"Damn straight!" Korra retorted, though the crooked smile on her face let Asami know that her words were in jest.

And then it was time to go back to the real world, and they got up, holding hands as they approached the spirit portal.

Just before they entered it, Korra turned to Asami and said, softly, "but in all seriousness, are you sure you don't want me to move in to help take care of you right away? I mean, pregnancy is supposed to be pretty tough..."

Asami smiled. "I'm not whale-sized yet, Korra. I'll be fine. And the next few months are gonna be ridiculously busy with the reconstruction of the city and dealing with the consequences in the Earth Kingdom - I mean, the Independent States of the Earth Republic. I think you'd better stay on Air Temple Island with Tenzin for now. Even if you did move in with me, we probably won't be seeing very much of each other for the next little while anyway."

"That's where you're wrong," Korra murmured and pulled Asami against her as they entered into the portal, capturing the taller woman's mouth in a kiss. "I will _always_ make time for you, Asami. _Always._"

It probably wasn't the best idea to sneak that last smooch in just before they hit the spirit portal, because they were still kissing each other when they arrived back in Republic City to an unexpectedly waiting audience.

When Korra ended her kiss with Asami, she found five pairs of boggled eyes staring up at the two of them stupidly.

Mako, Bolin, Jinora, Ikki and Meelo had been waiting for them on the other side of the spirit portal at Republic City.


	8. Public Displays of Affection

No one said anything at first, until Asami and Korra looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes and tried to slowly unhanded one another as casually and as nonchalantly as possible (they largely failed). They both realized that there probably wasn't any way to talk their way out of this.

Korra cast Asami one last sheepish look before rubbing the back of her head and saying to their friends, "Hi, guys! We weren't, err, expecting a welcoming committee."

There was a pregnant pause in the conversation and an errant tumble vine wantonly blew by.

Then Bolin and Ikki started squee-ing uncontrollably with massive hearts in their eyes. "Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod i'msohappyforyoutwooooo!" They somehow said in unison, both running forward to give Asami and Korra hugs. Ikki reached them first and plastered herself against Korra's middle while Bolin came and lifted the two women and one girl up and spun them around in the air in a massive bear hug.

Meanwhile, Meelo scowled and crossed his arms across his chest. "Ah, nuts! My love's been thwarted again!"

The group hug ended and everyone ambled down over to Jinora and Mako. The young air master offered Korra her glider. "Sorry. We didn't mean to intrude," Jinora said to both Korra and Asami, a knowing smile under her slight blush. "But Dad sent us to welcome Korra back to Air Temple Island. We had to rearrange some things around while the island acts as a temporary base of operations for the city so we came to make sure Korra knew where her room went."

Mako had a bit of a red and awkward expression on his face and he couldn't quite meet Korra's eyes at first before he gathered his gumption and turned to give Korra and Asami a small but genuine smile as he raised his good arm to show the keys dangling from his index finger. While his left arm wasn't in a sling anymore, it was still bandaged up to help keep infection out. "Bo and I figured Asami might need a lift home so we brought her car."

"Oh, um, alright. Thanks, Mako, Bolin..." Asami couldn't help but quickly look out the corner of her eyes at Korra and she could see the very complicated expression resting on her girlfriend's face.

Korra was looking straight at Mako with her eyebrows crinkled and she opened and closed her mouth a few times but she wasn't able to produce any intelligible sounds.

Eventually, Mako just simply smiled kindly at Korra, walked up to her, and gave her a hug, and Asami could hear him say to her softly, "hey, it's okay, Korra. I'm really happy for the two of you - I really am. We'll talk later, okay?"

And Korra could only simply blink a few times before a small smile came to her face and she hugged Mako back. "I'd really like that, Mako. Thanks."

"Anytime."

Mako released Korra and there was another pause in the conversation then, before Korra turned to give Asami an unsure look. "So if I've gotta get back to Air Temple Island, I guess this means I'll see you later?"

Asami nodded back at her girlfriend, even as she felt her heart give a slight twinge. "Right. I'll see you later."

_'Good grief; she hasn't even left yet and I'm already starting to miss her. And it's waaay too early to be able to blame that on hormonal imbalance.' _

But at least the unsure expression on Korra's face suggested she was feeling the same way. They continued to stand there and look at each other like they weren't quite sure what to do at that point until Ikki said excitedly, "are you gonna kiss each other goodbye now?"

"Do it!" Meelo cried, already completely forgetting his earlier angst. "It pleases me to see two beautiful women kissing each other for reasons I do not fully understand!"

The antics of the air nomad kids finally dispelled the lingering awkwardness in the air and Korra ruffled Meelo's hair. "You know what? No. I'm not kissing Asami just for your voyeuristic entertainment."

"Pleeease?"

"Nope!" But though she said this, Korra did ultimately end up giving Asami a quick peck on the cheek as she leaned over to whisper into her ear, "I'll come see you as soon as I can, okay?"

Asami nodded and then Korra took to the air on her glider with the air nomad kids after everyone said goodbye and disappeared into the early evening skies, leaving Asami with Mako and Bolin.

The three friends made their way to the car and Asami got behind the wheel since it was hers.

"Oh. My. Gooood!" Bolin squee'd once he settled into the backseat. "Asami! Tell us _everything_!"

Asami laughed a little awkwardly. "Um, well, the Spirit World is a pretty amazing place. It's really colorful, for one thing, and-"

"No no no," Bolin interrupted quickly, leaning forward between the two front seats and grinning at Asami with a megawatt smile. "I mean what happened between you and Korra?" He laughed. "Man, I know Prince Wu's been saying that you two were into each other, but I thought maybe Mako just hit the guy in the head one too many times during training. Hah! Maybe he wasn't completely out to lunch! Can you imagine that, Mako? Oh!" And then Bolin realized that maybe he was being a bit of an insensitive prick to his brother in the front passenger seat and turned to give him an apologetic wince. "Right! Sorry! Forgot about the potential for drama!"

But even though Mako had his arms folded across his chest, he was also wearing an amused smirk on his face. "It's alright, Bo. I've known for a while now and I'm cool with it." He flicked his amused smile onto Asami. "So, how was the vacation, anyway? Or," he teased, "based on how you guys came back, should I call it, the _honeymoon_?"

Asami almost drove them all off the road into a bunch of spirit vines though she managed to correct her steering just in time.

"Woah!" Mako cried while Bolin fell back onto his ass. "Geez, Asami! Watch out!"

"A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Asami forced out, sweatdrops decorating the entire back side of her head. "T-that was funny, Mako. Really funny!"

Mako and Bolin stared at Asami like she had two heads before they slowly turned and blinked at each other. A slow smile came to Bolin's face even as Mako's mouth slowly dropped open into an 'oh' of utter disbelief. Then they both turned their wide, wide eyes back onto Asami while wearing matching grins on their faces that could only be best described as shit-eating.

_'Oh, god. Great job, Asami. Reeeal subtle there.'_ Asami suddenly felt a headache coming on and fought back the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose - least she drive them into another patch of spirit vines creeping into the road.

"No. Way." The shit-eating grin on Bolin's face grew ever more and more aggravating and capable of eating shit as he struggled to contain his excitement. "NO WAY! Seriously? Did you guys _do the thing_?!"

Asami did her best to stifle a groan. "Where am I dropping you off, Bolin?"

"Haha! You're not getting off that easy, Lady!" Bolin laughed. "I'm staying at your place with Grandma Yin until the reconstruction of Republic City is a little further along the way, remember?"

"Really?" Mako rolled his eyes. "Then why is all your stuff still in my apartment?"

"Oh come on, Mako! I was just about to pry the details out of her!"

"No you weren't," Asami debunked dryly. "A gentlemen doesn't kiss and tell and neither does a lady."

"Says the lady who was kissing her lady in front of just about everybody back there!"

Asami blushed, unable to counter that.

Luckily, she didn't have to deflect Bolin's questions for much longer as they soon arrived at Mako's apartment, and the brothers got out of the car.

"Bo and I are just heading out to dinner with Opal. Are you sure you don't want to go catch up over dinner, Asami?" Mako asked, genuine disappointment in his voice. He smiled as convincingly as he could. "Hey, I promise Opal and I'll keep Bo in line."

"Thank you, Mako, but I think I just want to go home to a shower," Asami confessed apologetically. "As nice as the Spirit World was, I kinda miss indoor plumbing."

Mako chuckled. "Alright then, fair enough." He started to head back into his apartment until Asami called out for him tentatively.

"Mako?"

"Hmm?"

Asami bit her lip guiltily and couldn't quite meet his eyes. "Listen, I... I'm sorry about that earlier display there. I hope you don't think that Korra and I were trying to be jerks, but we really had no idea anyone was going to be meeting us here. And it was really sweet of you to bring the car. How did you even know when we were coming back?"

"Oh. That was actually Grandma Yin's idea." Mako replied sheepishly. "She..." He sighed. "Well, I'm sure you'll get the full earful when you get home. Just, take what she says with a grain of salt, alright? And whatever you do, don't listen to her _at all_ when she starts going off about _me_."

"Oh right! Grandma Yin." Asami mentally slapped her own forehead, embarrassed that she had completely forgotten she'd told her housekeeper when to expect her return.

Asami had taken in the entirety of Mako and Bolin's extended family three years ago when the Red Lotus's assassination of the Earth Queen had resulted in rioting, looting and destruction all across Ba Sing Se. While most of them had eventually found gainful employment in Republic City and moved out, Asami and Grandma Yin had grown quite fond of each other and the elderly woman had stayed around and become Asami's housekeeper. Unfortunately, the recent devastation to Republic City had destroyed the house her son Chow and grandson Tu lived in, so Asami had taken a bunch of the family back in again until things settled back down.

"Yeah." Mako smiled at Asami warmly. "And yeah, don't worry about it so much. This is probably going to sound weird, but I'm actually feeling _relieved_ more than anything else that you two... well, to know where the two of you stand. I was actually kinda worried that you might not have gotten to tell Korra how you felt during this trip. Think about how much more awkward it would have been _then_, for all of us!"

"Wow, Mako. That's..." Asami's heart was so overfilled with gratitude she could barely get any words out. "I... I don't even know what to say."

"Well, you and Korra _do_ owe Bo and I the full story." Mako grinned and turned to leave, waving his good arm as he said over his shoulder. "Just take us out to dinner one day and tell us all about it."


	9. I'm Sorry, Korra I've Failed You

"Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy! Guess what! Guess what! Guess what!"

Korra watched with a slowly dawning sense of unease as Ikki ran on ahead of her and excitedly rushed up to her mother and father seated at the dinner table, seeming just about ready to burst from having to contain her news. Indeed, she'd been bouncing up and down so much during the flight home Korra had wondered whether there'd been some sort of highly localized turbulence around the girl or something.

But no, it was just Ikki being Ikki and before Korra had a chance to do anything else, the girl had already blurted, "Korra and Asami are in love isn't that amazing oh my god I'm so happy for them Asami's got really pretty eyes and hey is that orange tofu for dinner awesome I'm famished!"

Tenzin had just put his hand on his youngest daughter's head to welcome her home and could do little more than blink at her. "Slow down, Ikki. Did you just say...?" He trailed off to look at the Avatar in question instead as Korra came into the room with Jinora and Meelo.

From the look both Tenzin and Pema were giving her, Korra realized the expression on her face must've been guilty-as-charged enough to completely validate Ikki's declaration – or at least the first five words of it.

_'Oh geez; I really need to work on my poker face. How did we ever manage to escape from Koh the other day?'_

The married couple kept looking at Korra with quiet expectation, and Korra opened and closed her mouth a few times before she remembered her manners and simply settled for a, "um, hi, Tenzin, Pema," with an uneasy smile she knew wasn't fooling anyone. "Ah, sorry to come back a little later than expected. I didn't mean to interrupt dinner."

From the way Tenzin simply raised one of his eyebrows even further, Korra realized that by not loudly and indignantly denying Ikki's assessment as she sat down at the table with Jinora and Meelo, she had more or less confirmed the hyperactive airbender's announcement.

"Welcome back, Korra." Tenzin finally said, amusement very clearly audible in his tone. "And how did you enjoy your vacation?"

"It was really great."

"And?"

"A lot of fun."

"And?"

"Uh... relaxing? I mean, except for the death defying parts?"

Tenzin's eyebrow twitched. "... _And?_"

Ikki looked back and forth between Korra and her father before cocking her head to the side. "Korra and Asami were kissing when they came out of the spirit portal." She offered as helpfully as possible.

"Ah, Rohan! My brother!" Meelo declared to his younger sibling with stars of excitement in his eyes. "You missed the glorious sight that was two beautiful women kissing each other like it was their last day on earth!"

Now it was Korra's turn to have her eyebrow twitch spastically and she rapped Meelo on the back of his head, earning a loud _'ow!'_ from him. "Hey! We weren't that bad!"

And now even Tenzin couldn't help but snort while Pema hid a large smile behind a hand.

Korra looked sheepishly away from them. "We were just... kissing each other like it was our last day in the _Spirit World_ was all..."

_'__Which, duh! It totally was!'_ Korra managed to keep her internal sigh from coming out, but she got the distinct impression she was going to very keenly miss the privacy she'd managed to share with Asami for a full 10 days away from the prying eyes of the world.

Rohan crinkled his nose and made a face. "Ew!" Declared the four year old as he pretended to throw up, "why do girls think about _sucking face_ all the time? That's gross!"

"Oh, Rohan." Meelo tsked at his younger brother. "Such a child you still are."

Pema gave her eldest son a sardonic look as she placed some greens into his rice bowl with her chopsticks. "You're still a child too, Meelo." Then she did the same for Korra, offering some vegetables to her. "So? Are you going to give us the full story? Or shall we just assume it's fashionable for young people to start 'sucking face' with all their friends these days?"

Korra accepted the kind offering from her mother-figure away from home with a murmur of thanks, unable to keep all of the bashful heat she was feeling inside from leaking onto her cheeks. She felt acutely embarrassed and she wasn't exactly sure why - well, that was a lie. Tenzin's family had become her family over the last four years, and the gentle ribbing they were giving her was actually making her feel very loved and attended to at the moment, as though they were her own parents teasing her.

"Um, well, Ikki's pretty much right. Asami and I might've started a relationship during our vacation and we might've been having an intimate moment when the kids found us..."

Tenzin and Pema simply looked at each other before Pema chuckled and Tenzin sighed. There was a very, _'ah! The kids are growing up! I'm getting old!'_ quality about that sigh.

Pema reached out to give Korra's hand a supportive squeeze as she winked and said, "congratulations, Korra. We've noticed recently how happy Asami makes you. Don't be so embarrassed. I've lost track of all the times the kids walked in on Tenzin and I when they were little."

All of the airbending kids recoiled and looked like they wanted throw up a little - even Jinora.

"Thanks, Mom." Jinora said dryly. "That's probably a little more information than anyone cared for."

Korra couldn't help but laugh and she shoveled a mouthful of rice into her mouth, Pema and Tenzin's approval doing much to bolster her mood. She still remembered that her airbending master hadn't been entirely supportive when she'd started her relationship with Mako, citing teenage puppy love a distraction from her Avatar training. His disapproval at the time had hurt more than she'd care to admit. But this time, Tenzin didn't seem to have any lingering concerns at all, and for that, Korra was grateful.

Though having said that, she couldn't help but wonder what her airbending master would think when he learned just how _far_ her relationship with Asami had gone...

_'Hopefully, he'll take it well. I mean, Pema even said they've all noticed how happy Asami makes me...' _As Korra thought this, she scanned the air nomad family's faces and smiled ruefully. "None of you seem surprised by any of this at all. Am I the only one who didn't have a clue about my own feelings?"

Korra had meant the quip as a joke, so she was surprised when Pema and Tenze actually gave each other a meaningful look.

Tenzin sighed again, and this sigh was a bit more like his usual ones of long suffering.

"Actually, Korra, you and Asami have been making quite the rounds in the tabloids recently. Apparently, one of them managed to get an interview with Prince Wu just before he left and he was quite eager to share his theory, so I'm afraid, yes, there's been quite some buzz in the air concerning you and Miss Sato."

Korra boggled. "Seriously? Republic City's still in the midst of cleaning up after Kuvira and the Earth Kingdom is on the cusp of a historic political transformation... and the papers think my _love life_ is more newsworthy? _Really_?"

Tenzin gave Korra a wan smile. "People are anxious about all the changes happening in the world, Korra. It's hard to fault them for wanting to find some comfort in distractions. And if it makes you feel better, most people don't believe it. Although, strangely enough, _Lin,_ of all people, did. Which reminds me - I owe her 50 yuan."

"_Lin?_ Really?" Korra stared at Tenzin dumbstruck. "Are air nomads even_ allowed_ to gamble?"

"We're not. Which makes losing this wager all the more disheartening." He chuckled. "But I can catch you up on the consequences of Wu's gossiping amongst other things later. Anyway, what's this about death defying incidents on your trip? What happened?"

There was a hint of something potentially troubling in Tenzin's words that tugged at the worry in the back of Korra's mind a little, but with the entire family leaned in and eager to hear her tale, she found herself launching into the story about getting thrown off the dragon-phoenix, though she had to edit it a little to not mention the news Asami had broken to her during the plummet.

Soon, dinner was over and Korra spent some time cleaning up and unpacking her meager possessions into her new room before finding Tenzin at their usual meditation spot in one of the pagodas around Air Temple Island that hadn't been commandeered by the administrators and bureaucrats of City Hall.

Tenzin smiled warmly at her as Korra sat down in front of him.

Wordlessly, they started their meditation ritual and it wasn't even three minutes later that Korra cracked one eye open and realized that Tenzin had also cracked one of his open to peek at her and was actually so eager to speak to her about the spirit world that he was fidgeting restlessly as he sat (in ways not even Ikki or Meelo did anymore!), he was just so excited.

And that was when Korra realized that her mentor was actually dying to talk to her about her adventures in the spirit world. For all that he just wasn't as spiritually connected or talented as his daughter was, Tenzin was still very enamored with experiencing what he could of that other world.

Korra closed her eye and smiled. "Soo... " She drawled as casually as possible, "... I met King Enma."

She could hear Tenzin's jaw dropped out of his skull.

"What?! King Enma _himself_?!"

And Korra couldn't help but snort in amusement as she opened her eyes to see her mentor wearing an excited expression he could have stolen right off of his eldest son's face. "Yeah! He's actually a pretty decent guy."

They ended up talking well into the night, so absorbed into their conversation that Korra completely lost track of time until she realized the moon was very high up in the sky. Korra couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her serious mentor so excited and eager before, and it made her very happy to be able to bring such joy to him, though some parts of the story did make him stare at her in disbelief (and maybe disappointment) – especially when she realized she was sort of describing the divine mechanism of reincarnation as something very similar to a line-up at a grocery store.

Then Tenzin asked, "but how did you even know to look for this _Administration of the Mortal Coil_ in the first place? That it even _existed_?"

For a brief moment, Korra wondered whether she should lie or not, but one look into her mentor's kind blue eyes and the deep caring held for her within them, and her heart told her that Asami would be fine with letting him know the truth.

But despite this knowledge, it was still a very momentous announcement to make and Korra had to take a deep breath to calm her nerves as her heart started to pound a little more aggressively in her chest.

_'Alright... here goes!'_

"Tenzin... Asami and I, we sort of got...intimate."

"Intimate?" Tenzin's eyes widened and he looked like he was having a bit of trouble grasping this idea as a concept. "Do you mean... _intimate_-intimate?"

Korra felt her blush grow hotter. "Yeah, _intimate_-intimate. I... kinda got her pregnant. And we went looking for King Enma because we were looking for a way to reverse it. But then we decided we wanted to keep the baby."

Korra winced, waiting for Tenzin's trademark,_ 'whaaaaat?!'_ whenever he learned one of his kids (or Korra) had done something incredulous.

But Tenzin didn't blow up like she thought he would.

He just stared at her silently.

For a very long time.

And then he blinked.

"I see." He finally said, a very complicated expression on his face. He closed his eyes and was very deep in thought for a while, and Korra couldn't help but suddenly feel very worried and guilty and all sorts of awful.

_'... __oh, wow. This... this is bad, isn't it? Tenzin's... Tenzin's actually not going to take this well at all, is he? Oh, god, I shouldn't have told him!'_ Korra couldn't help but feel her worry build and build and her heart pound and pound as her mentor remained silently contemplative.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Tenzin opened his eyes. "I'm sorry, Korra. This is my fault. I have always said to you that I consider myself your teacher in more than just the ways of airbending and spirituality. Very clearly, your understanding on basic life fundamentals are lacking, and though I would have thought your parents would have told you all about these things already, evidently they have not and I should have been there to supplement your education." He took a deep breath. "You see, when a man and a woman love each other very much, sometimes-"

Korra groaned and palmed her face. "Oh, god, Tenzin! No! Please! Don't try to give me 'The Talk'!"

* * *

><p>AN: So, um, *rubs back of head sheepishly* if the next chapter gets quite a bit sexier than originally advertised for this fic, will folks be offended...? (If so, I guess I can just put the scene into a separate fic, but I kinda want to keep it all together...)


	10. Intimate-Intimate

_'Oh!'_ Asami almost moaned in ecstasy as she stood underneath her shower and felt the ablution needling through her skin and into her muscles. _'Hot! Water!'_

As much as she'd legitimately enjoyed the camping-style vacation in the Spirit World and actively proved to the world on a day-to-day basis that she wasn't just a helpless and spoiled little princess, there was still something to be said for the luxury and comforts of home.

(To be fair, on the second day of their vacation, Korra had offered to warm up the stream water they were bathing in. Asami had felt very pleased and well-taken-care-of by the offer but the school of hyena koi spirits that they hadn't realized were in the stream with them had felt otherwise and they'd then spent the next twenty minutes running for their lives in the buff before they could circle back to pick up their clothes. Asami was still mourning the lost of her favorite bra in the chaos. After that, she had decided sucking it up was probably for the best.)

After arriving home and greeting Grandma Yin with a hug, Asami had realized what Mako had meant when he had warned her that his grandmother was acting strangely. The old woman had doted and fussed over Asami as soon as she had arrived home, and while this was to be entirely expected, Asami could tell there was something different from Yin's usual displays of affection in the way the woman kept asking her about her grandson - why Mako hadn't accompanied her all the way home; what he was doing now; whether he'd been there to pick her up on time; and oh, please forgive him, Asami, he takes after his grandfather...

Finally, Asami had had enough and simply asked her, "Grandma Yin? You know Mako and I are just friends. What's going on?"

It had taken Asami a while to pry it out of her elderly housekeeper, but eventually she had learned about what the papers were saying about her and Korra during their vacation.

"Oh, say it isn't so, Asami," Grandma Yin had said mournfully, tightly grasping Asami's hands. She had been so upset that Asami had felt the need to sit her down in a chair and had kneeled down beside her so she could look respectfully up at the old woman. "Are you really in love with the Avatar? With another woman?"

And Asami had been a little lost for words as she took in the disappointed look on the elderly woman's face, this woman she had become so fond of over the last three years, who had become something of a surrogate grandmother to her during a time when there had been absolutely no one left in her family, who had prepared all her dinners and made sure they remained warm and delicious and nutritious, even if Asami sometimes couldn't leave Future Industries's offices until midnight.

"Oh, Grandma Yin," Asami had said softly, squeezing the old woman's hands. "Would it really be so wrong if I was?"

And Grandma Yin had looked back at Asami's earnest expression and pulled her in for a tight hug and shook her head fiercely even as Asami felt the old woman's tears against her cheek. "Oh, no, no, sweet child, _no_! It's not wrong. It's not wrong at all. You love whoever it is you are going to love. It's just-! OH!" And then the old woman gave a mighty noise of frustration, even as she unhanded Asami to rub the tears from her face while giving Asami a rueful smile. "Forgive an old senile woman her fantasies, but it just makes me so _mad_ when I think about how beautiful your kids with Mako could have been! Oh, why did my grandson have to take after his grandfather so much? You could have been my grand-daughter! They could have been my great-grandchildren! It's just such a pity!"

Sweatdrops - a whole family of them - had popped up all over the back of Asami's hair like weeds after someone had dumped fertilizer over top of her head and it was all Asami could do to just give the old woman a really, really, _reeeeaally_ awkward smile.

Eventually, they managed to dispel that awkwardness and Asami had said softly, "if it means anything to you, I kinda already think of you as my grandmother in a lot of ways. So if you wanted to think of me as a granddaughter to you, that would be more than fine with me."

And this had prompted the old woman to hug her all over again. "Oh, bless you, child! Of course this means something to me! You are just the sweetest thing! Oh! Say! If you and the Avatar decide to have kids in the future, would you two consider using Mak-?"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Asami had cried desperately, eyes widened in complete panic as she hastily clamped her hand over Grandma Yin's mouth. It was a very disrespectful thing to do to an elder she had just called _'Grandmother'_, but she really had to stop her from uttering a very, very, _very_ horrific notion (_very_).

"Please, Grandma Yin, for the love of all that's good and holy in this world, _don't_ finish that sentence."

Thinking about that earlier conversation and how horrifically awkward it could have made all future interactions between the friends of Team Avatar, Asami felt a shudder run up her spine even under the heat of the hot water in her shower, and frantically scrubbed at her hair to wash the memory out.

_'Oh god. Grandma Yin is totally going to start jumping to weird conclusions as soon as I start to show, isn't she?' _

Shaking her head, Asami realized there really wasn't too much she could really do about that at this point, and she finished washing out her hair and scrubbing herself clean before turning off the shower, toweling herself dry and throwing a robe on over her nightgown.

Then she retired to her study and completely lost track of time as she tried to catch up to date on the various projects going on at Future Industries. It normally didn't take her very long to make her way through the various daily update reports, but her heart just wasn't into it and it was slow going. She found herself with not much of an appetite either, and could only pick at her food when Grandma Yin brought supper up to her.

After catching herself reading the same sentence of a report three times, Asami finally just gave up and sat back in her chair, closing her eyes.

A dull ache was throbbing in her heart, a familiar one she'd actually been feeling for a little over three years now but had only been able to recognize it for what it was relatively recently.

Loneliness. Longing. Yearning.

For Korra.

After a glorious 10 days on vacation with her now girlfriend, every waking moment spent together, every sleeping moment curled beside one another, it was tough to come back to a big, old, empty mansion where there used to be three people in her family but now were not - _much_ tougher than Asami had initially anticipated.

Even the knowledge that Grandma Yin and Chow and Tu and a bunch more folks were somewhere on Sato Estate grounds couldn't really chase that feeling away, for all the fondness Asami felt for Yin.

She had spent the last three years managing to keep the loneliness at bay largely through work, but now... now Asami knew that that strategy just wasn't going to cut it anymore.

She smiled ruefully as she caught herself idly rubbing her tummy with a hand.

"Hey you," she found herself saying. "So whaddaya think? Was I an idiot to refuse your mommy when she asked to move in with us? To take care of us?"

Silence answered her back and Asami sighed. "Right. Just because I know you have a soul doesn't mean you've got ears or a mouth yet. Or even a head. Actually, you're little more than a clump of cells right now, aren't you?"

It was then that she heard a light tapping on the third story window behind her, and Asami's heart leapt up into her throat when she realized that someone was on her balcony; it could only have been one person.

Asami blinked a few times before a slow smile dawned on the bottom half of her face and she quickly got up to hurry to the window to let Korra in.

"What are you doing here?" Asami couldn't keep that smile off her face, couldn't stop grinning like a fool when Korra folded up her glider and ducked inside and then quickly pulled her close and caught her mouth in a glorious, long, deep, lingering kiss.

Asami wasn't sure how long it lasted, and she didn't particularly care to know. Hours could have passed; days.

Eventually, Korra ended the kiss though she still held Asami close, resting their foreheads against one another. "I said I'd come see you as soon as I could, didn't I?"

Asami smiled, a little embarrassed to be feeling so pleased. "Yeah, but I didn't think it would be _this_ soon."

"What can I say? I aim to please." Korra grinned, though that grin became a little apologetic as she confessed, "Asami, I... I hope you don't mind, but, I told Tenzin. About the baby."

This didn't surprise Asami too much; the man was like a father to Korra after all. "I thought you might. It's okay. How did he react?"

Korra scrunched up her face. "I don't think he believed me - he insisted on giving me The Talk."

Asami laughed. "Can you blame him?"

"No, but, man, I sure hope this isn't the start of a pattern. And now I feel really sorry for Jinora and Ikki." Korra cringed a little. "I should probably let Pema know she should be the one to handle that conversation for the girls. But anyway, even though I still don't think he fully believes me, he said he'd get Kya to come by the Sato Estates the day after tomorrow."

Asami laughed lightly. "Alright, sounds good."

They drifted off into a comfortable silence before Asami confessed, "I'm really glad you came by Korra. Thank you. I never realized how big and empty this house actually was. How'd you even know where to find me? "

"I actually tried your bedroom window first because I thought you'd be in bed by now. And hey, shouldn't you be?" Korra teased. "I thought you had a long day tomorrow."

"I tried, but I couldn't sleep."

"Me neither."

They stood there holding each other and smiling like complete dorks for a while, before Asami bit her lip and reached up to cup Korra's cheek, tilting her lover's gaze up to see the shy hopefulness she knew was in her eyes. "... do you want to stay the night?" Asami asked in a soft whisper.

Korra drank in the look Asami was giving her before smiling her crooked little smile. Without any further warning, Korra bent and swept an arm down behind Asami's knees, lifting her up in a bridal carry easily and ran for the door of the study, somehow managing to get it open without the use of her hands. Once out in the hallway, Korra looked left and right frantically, before hissing softly to the woman she carried in her arms, "which way's your room?"

So Asami directed Korra down the hall, around the corner, down another flight of stairs, around another corner, into the private quarters' wing of Sato Estates, past the master bedroom, down another hall, and round another corner until arriving in front of Asami's bedroom. It was a testament to Korra's stamina that she wasn't even winded by the time she set Asami down inside of her room and kicked the door shut behind them, though Asami realized light beads of perspiration had started to dot Korra's brow as they eagerly clasped together behind the privacy of the closed door.

Korra pulled Asami's robe back over her shoulders urgently and doffed it, and she gave a sigh of appreciation when she realized that Asami's nightgown was very light and sheer and didn't do a very good job of hiding her figure and it helpfully had a very large, over-sized boat-neck that allowed Korra to simply pull it down over one of Asami's shoulders, and then the other one, before it quietly slipped to the floor in unobtrusive cooperation, leaving Asami gloriously bare save for one other private article of clothing which joined the silk pooled around her feet soon enough.

Asami pulled Korra's face towards her own, feeling the sudden need to kiss her lover silly, even as Korra pushed her up against her bedroom door.

Then it was all crushed lips and dancing tongues and deep kisses and playful nibbling and uttered sighs and feathered moans as Korra teased her way down Asami's body with her mouth, starting from Asami's gasping own, down her trembling throat, across her collarbone, to her chest, her breasts, even as Asami pawed at the pelt around Korra's waist, needing a couple of tries before she could remove it and throw it away - her attention somewhat distracted by Korra's own actions. Asami grabbed at the bottom of Korra's top and pull it over her head, causing Korra's short bob to fan about her face wantonly, then sent that top sailing through the air too. A few more moments of fumbling and soon Korra's bottoms were off as well leaving her in chest bindings and shorts.

Asami wanted very much to pull the rest of her lover's underclothes off but by then Korra had kneeled down to the floor, her body beyond the reach of Asami's hands. Asami stopped trying to pull her girlfriend back up when she realized Korra had stopped her kisses, and was gazing at her abdomen.

A very warm and happy sensation spread out from Asami's heart as she realized what her lover was doing as Korra give her tummy the most gentle of touches, before she closed her eyes and wrapped her strong arms around Asami's legs. Then she pressed her lips softly against Asami's skin, just below her belly button, in loving greeting to the soul - _their child_ - who had somehow found its way to them under the most improbable of circumstances.

Asami couldn't help but feel the happiness in her heart threaten to over spill from the corner of her eyes as she laid a hand on the side of Korra's face in a gentle caress.

When Korra re-opened her eyes and looked up at Asami, Asami found her breath taken away by the complete and utter adoration she found in Korra's marvelously clear, marvelously blue eyes.

Then Korra flicked her eyes down and then flicked them back up in a meaningful way, smiling shyly as she asked in a soft, almost reverent whisper, "... may I?", and it was all Asami could do to swallow back that lump of emotion in her throat and give her lover the barest of nods.

Both Korra's smile and her eyes grew wide with fond delight.

She lowered further down, closing her eyes as she spread Asami open to taste her, to partake of her, to make love to her in patient, attentive veneration.

And Asami found herself utterly consumed, utterly lost, incapable of action, of thought, of doing anything at all for god knows how long, at the utter mercy of Korra's ministrations as her lover carefully took her time and attention to savor her, pleasure her, _worship_ her.

Time lost all meaning as Asami shivered from the coolness in the air, from the heat in her loins, from the excitement rippling all through her body and limbs, and she had no idea how long Korra kept her in such a rapturous state, until she found herself throwing her head backwards and heard herself giving voice to Korra's name in a strangled cry of climax...

...

...

...

Korra and Asami didn't fall asleep until a good while later, after they'd both overspent themselves. Wrapped up tightly in each other's arms (in part because the bed was very small, being the same one Asami had been using since childhood), the second last thought that managed to make its way across Asami's mind before sleep claimed her was whether they'd locked her bedroom door (or simply just closed it).

It was Grandma Yin's loud and unexpected screaming the next morning, accompanied by a familiar bird's very loud and very unexpected squawking, that woke them both up with a start, and told Asami that they hadn't.

* * *

><p>AN: O_O! Wow! You guys! I don't know what to say - this is _the _first time I've ever had a story go north of 1,000 hits in a day before! XD! Thank you so much! (I know the super short chapters probably have a lot to do with it, but, still! Thanks, you guys! You really made my day!)

Thank you so much to those of you who've taken the time to leave a review or a fav/follow! I'm super-behind in responding to them, but I will try my best! Please bear with me!

This chapter is, again, double the size of a normal offering because there's only a slim chance I'll be able to post tomorrow, so thank you for your patience and understanding. (Also, after raising the question about sexy bits and getting your feedback on the last chapter, I realized it all fit into the back half of this scene, and I kinda didn't want to disappoint.) =P


	11. The Other Side of the Equation

Korra's slumber was far too deep for her to hear the knocking on Asami's bedroom door. She couldn't hear the creak of the door opening either, nor could she hear the first part of Grandma Yin's words, but she definitely caught the last part as the old woman ended up saying, "Asami? Dearie? Are you still in bed? It's already 10 in the morning and the o-OOOOH!"

"SQUAAWWWWK!"

The sound of Grandma Yin screaming caused Korra to fall out of bed much like that time she had accidently lit herself on fire in her sleep as a kid and in that frantic 0.32 seconds between blissfully dreaming in Asami's arms and landing on the floor, Korra's eyes caught sight of what she thought was an elderly woman coming into Asami's bedroom and tripping over something white and fuzzy that had been roosting drowsily on the floor just in front of the door.

Korra's brain wasn't nearly awake enough to be able to process what that white and fuzzy something was, though she could have sworn that it had made a very loud and obnoxiously disagreeable noise, and in the time it took her to blink away the last traces of sleep from her eyes, that white and fuzzy something had disappeared, as though it hadn't even been there in the first place, and all Korra could process was the very alarming sight of a frail old woman falling, her mouth still caught in an open 'oh!' of surprise.

The avatar reacted on instinct, diving into action as she rushed forward, even going so far as entering into the Avatar State to give herself that extra burst of fire-and-air-propelled speed she needed to make it to Grandma Yin, catching the elderly woman before she could break anything.

"It's okay! You're okay! Everything's fine! I've got you!" Korra tried to calm down the flustered old woman, who clung to her with surprising strength, a bewildered look in her eyes.

Back on her bed, Asami had bolted upright and was staring at this dramatic situation that was taking place by her bedroom door with a look of complete astonishment. It didn't even take a half-moment later before Asami deduced what must have happened and she quickly made her way over to the two women on the floor, pulling a sheet off the bed and holding it to her chest in an attempt to maintain her modesty almost as an afterthought. "Grandma Yin!" She cried, kneeling down beside Korra, and grabbing one of the grandmother's hands firmly. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, dear me!" Grandma Yin uttered breathlessly. It took her a few moments before she finally calmed down and let the two young people help her back up to her feet, holding her arms. Luckily, the elderly woman was only startled, and not otherwise harmed. "Good gracious, whatever did I trip on?"

They all looked back at the doorway and blinked stupidly at the hazard which turned out to be Asami's clothing that Korra had so urgently discarded to the floor to be forgotten the night before.

All three women's eyes went wide for just a moment as they considered the implications of the discovery, before Grandma Yin blinked and looked down at Asami's hand supporting her, followed that hand up Asami's arm to the shoulder it was attached to and finally realized that what Asami was so-called-wearing at the moment was nothing more than a bed sheet hastily wrapped around her. Asami blinked a couple of times before she realized what Grandma Yin had to be thinking and her eyebrows crinkled guilty, as a very large and _'e-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh'_ kinda insincere smile stretched awkwardly across her face.

Then Grandma Yin blinked woodenly and turned to look at Korra, who quickly let go of the grandmother's arm with a "gah!" of panic, blushing furiously as she tried to cover up her complete butt-naked-ness.

"... Oh my." Grandma Yin finally managed to say, before blinking again. She reached out and patted Korra's abs. "You really are _very_ muscular, aren't you?"

Looking just about ready to die of mortification, Korra wordlessly took two big side-steps to slide behind Asami and hid as much of her naked self as she could behind her girlfriend's taller frame, peering out from behind one of Asami's shoulders in supreme embarrassment. "Y-Yes Ma'am. Sorry Ma'am." She had no idea why she was apologizing.

The grandmother gave the two young women a bemused look before sighing, "ah, to be young again." She bent down to scoop up Asami's clothes from off the floor as though she was going to do the laundry. "But honestly, Asami," she chided, "while I can now better appreciate just why you'd choose the Avatar over my grandson, I would be very thankful if the two of you could be a little more _considerate_ with your youthful urges and discard your clothing into the laundry hamper first. Or, failing that, at least make sure the door is locked. You might have saved me from an awful tumble there, Avatar Korra, but at my age, I'm as likely to die of a heart attack as I am anything else!_ Hmph!_ Now the two of you should go get dressed and come downstairs for breakfast. Asami, dear, I'll let your secretary know you just slept in; he was very worried when you didn't show up to work this morning."

"T-Thank you, Grandma Yin," Asami said as apologetically as she could as she shoo'ed the old woman out of her room and followed her instructions to lock the door, before whirling around and giving Korra a truly horrified look, softly mouthing, _'oh my god, I can't believe that just happened!' _

"At least _you_ had the sense to grab a bedsheet!" Korra hissed back.

They continued to stare at each other silently in equal mortification before they finally both broke down into laughter at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Eventually they got around to getting dressed.

"Hey, Asami?" As she was belting her pelt back around her waist, something about its fuzzy white lining twigged at Korra's memory. "This morning, did you hear anything besides Grandma Yin screaming?"

_'Seriously. I could've sworn there was something bigger on top of that pile of clothes that caused her to trip...'_

Asami thought about it for a moment before cocking her head to the side. "Actually, now that you mention it... I do think I heard something that kinda sounded like... like _squawking_."

The lovers stared at each other for a moment before the light-bulb clicked on over both their heads at the same time. Korra felt the incredulity rising inside her chest much like the way Asami's eyebrows were raising upwards to her hairline.

"Botan!" They both blurted to each other.

And as though saying his name had summoned him, there came suddenly the sound of flapping wings and then, from out of nowhere, a thirty pound bird suddenly crashed into Korra's face, knocking her off balance in a flurry of flying feathers. It took her a while, but eventually, Korra managed to pry the spirit from her person and flung him down onto the floor.

"Good grief, I gotta watch that first step!" Botan muttered to himself even as he shook himself out and compulsively preened at a wing before noticing Korra and Asami's flabbergasted looks. "Oh! H-Hi! Avatar Korra! Asami Sato! You called?" The wanna-be stork swallowed nervously.

"_'Called'?_ No! We didn't call you!" Korra stared at the spirit incredulously, her head racing at a million thoughts per second. _'No way! NO freakin' WAY! What is he even *doing* here?!_' She frantically looked over at Asami. A horrified thought came to her as Korra recalled the circumstances that had brought the wanna-be stork into their lives in the first place. "Oh, god, please don't tell me you're here because you think we were_ 'summoning'_ for you again!"

_'__Is this guy seriously going to show up every time Asami and I-! I-?!' _

"Oh, no no!" Botan replied quickly, holding his wings up in front of him in the universally recognized sign of 'please-don't-beat-the-shit-out-of-me'. "Though I still firmly believe that you two were definitely trying to make another baby last night, I have learned my lesson! No more deliveries without King Enma's seal!" The spirit made a sound that was supposed to be the equivalent of a bird's nervous laughter before he deflated. "And, um, in any case, I've kinda been suspended for the next 75 years, so, um, yeah. No more deliveries for me for a while..."

Relief flooded through Korra's system. 'Oh, thank _god_.' She gave Asami a look of reciprocated relief.

"Well then, what _were_ you doing here this morning?" Asami asked. "You almost killed Grandma Yin!"

"Oh! Um, well, I'm trying to get some community service hours in by helping the ravens out with their quota." He showed Korra and Asami his left wing and they could see that a single black band had been wrapped around it. "They're in charge of the other side of the cycle, to bring departing souls back to the Spirit World, and Bob thought that maybe if I could show King Enma that I was on my best behaviour, he'd be willing to shave some time off of my suspension, but," and now the bird looked rightly depressed, "I don't know if I was really cut out for this."

Korra couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the spirit; clearly, delivering unborn souls to babies was what he was passionate about. To be stuck doing the complete opposite had to be rough. "Okay," Korra said very slowly. "I get that, but why are you... _here_? In front of Asami and I?"

The bird somehow became even more depressed. "Well, it was Bob who set me up with this gig. He told me to follow you two for the next few weeks in case you decided you changed your mind and wanted to take King Enma up on his offer. Bob said you guys have up until the 8th week of gestation, since that's the average amount of time humans have to abort their applications for baby souls prior to soul delivery, but oh, please, please, please, please, please tell me that you're not going to change your mind? I mean, I was really happy with the decision that you guys made at the Administration and it really touched me and made a lot of sense to me but Bob said that you guys might have just been overwhelmed at the moment and didn't think it through and might still change your minds and stuff..."

Korra and Asami stared at each other before Asami finally smiled and said to the bird. "In that case, I think you're probably safe to go, Botan. We aren't going to change our minds. We do intend to keep the baby."

"Oh, well, that's good to hear!" Bob gave a sigh of relief. "So, um, about this Grandma Yin person I supposedly almost killed. Um. How far gone would you say she is? Should I follow her around just in case?"

Asami was rightly too horrified to answer the spirit, while Korra just pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Get out, Botan. Just get _out._"


	12. Way Worse Than The Talk Waaay

The next day found Asami and Korra sitting in Asami's bedroom on the edge of Asami's bed while Kya was sitting in an armchair and studying the expressions on both young women's faces quietly. They could have done the examination anywhere, really – there were lots of rooms in the Sato Estates after all – but they'd decided on the bedroom for privacy's sake, away from servants and Grandma Yin.

Korra had only spent all of two nights in Asami's bedroom (last night and the night before) and still found herself amused by the curiosities held within it. While the silk linens and stylish furniture and vanity station and all the clothing in the ridiculously massive walk-in closet was very much in keeping with Asami's sophisticated tastes, the room itself was still very obviously one that a child had grown into adulthood in; it was small, for one thing, with childhood affects and belongings still dotting the room here and there – a stuffed koala sheep on the window sill, a custom-made kit of wrenches and screwdrivers sized to fit a child's smaller hands, various types of textbooks lining a bookshelf – and, of course, the single twin-sized bed they were currently sitting on that Korra had fallen out of two mornings in a row now due in large part to its narrowness.

In contrast, Korra's bedrooms - both back at her home in the Southern Water Tribe, and on Air Temple Island here in Republic City, were largely devoid of personal effects, but that was probably because those rooms were not the ones she'd grown up in, and had largely been furnished by other people for her (that, and air nomad culture was just not really big on material possessions).

Idly, Korra wondered if Asami might find getting confirmation of her own impending motherhood in a location so obviously filled with the nostalgia of childhood a little strange, but a look out of the corner of her eyes at Asami's face told her that it was probably more a comfort than anything else.

Korra turned her attention back to the older woman quietly gazing at them.

While Kya was not as re-known as her mother (indeed, by strict definition of the word, there could only ever be one _best _healer in the world at a time), Katara's daughter was a master healer in her own right and though they hadn't been particularly close, Korra had known Kya all her life and thought of her as an Aunt of sorts. It was worrying Korra a little that she couldn't remember ever having seen Kya with such a serious expression on her face before; the furrowed brows and slight frown on her face behind her folded hands definitely showed that she was Tenzin's sister.

Finally, Kya released her serious expression and simply sighed as she relaxed back in the armchair.

"Korra, do you remember when your mother told you the story about the buffalo-birds and the butterfly-bees? Well... that was a metaphor. A baby is made when a man puts his penis into a woman's vagina and-"

"Kya!" Korra interrupted, slapping her face. _'Three for three.'_ She groaned to herself. _'I'm three for three. _"I know how babies are usually made," Korra said impatiently, "I'm the Avatar. I made a baby with my girlfriend. Deal with it_._"

Kya blinked once before frowning and folding her arms across her chest.

Asami didn't have to give Korra the look of reproach for Korra to know that she was being really rude to the master healer, and she sighed. "I'm sorry, Kya. I didn't mean... look. I know the circumstances are unusual, but they are what they are. So could you please just tell us what you think?"

The master healer didn't seem entirely convinced, but she dropped the issue with a sigh. "Well, I'm not sure what you want me to say, Korra." She turned to the raven-haired young woman sitting beside the Avatar, "Asami, from what I can tell from our earlier examination, you are perfectly healthy."

Korra frowned. She turned to look at Asami and found her girlfriend gazing back with her with amusement in her eyes, as though she was saying, _'see? I told you there was nothing to worry about.' _And while Korra was relieved for the confirmation that one less-than-competent-stork's rash actions hadn't resulted in any immediate harm to her girlfriend's health, she found herself a little bit on the unsatisfied side with Kya's assessment. "Yeah, I'm glad to hear that, but what about the baby?"

Though they might have gotten confirmation of the start of new life from the more esoteric side of the equation already, they were both a little anxious about the physiological side, given their less-than-full-confidence in a certain wanna-be stork's understanding of human biology, and Korra would have felt a little better with some sort of evidence that the stupid crane hadn't delivered a soul to Asami's prostate. Or something like that.

Kya shrugged a little helplessly. "Listen girls, you've gotta ignore any old midwives' tales you might have heard growing up. I've been doing this for 25 years, and I swear to you, a healer simply cannot accurately confirm if a woman is pregnant less than a week after conception. It's just too early, and there's no reliable evidence to suggest one way or another. The earliest I can confirm is at about three weeks. That's when a woman's womb will have lined enough in preparation of supporting new life that I can detect the changes in her chi pattern."

"Really? So there's really no way of confirming sooner?"

The healer shook her head. "Not with today's medical knowledge, I'm afraid, although I did once hear about a very skilled earthbender who supposedly was able to detect a growth in a woman's womb at roughly half the size of a fingernail that turned out to be a fetus. But I'm afraid that ability is beyond me, so I'm afraid you'll just have to be patient."

Korra could tell Asami was disappointed, but wasn't sure how to comfort her girlfriend. She smiled a little sadly at her fellow water-bender. "Alright, I think we understand. Thanks for coming, Kya. We appreciate it."

"No problem. I can come back in a couple of weeks if you'd like, and in the meanwhile, I can get some herbs and supplements delivered to you, Asami, assuming that you indeed _are_ with child."

Asami smiled. "Thank you, that's very thoughtful of you."

While now would have been the natural place in the conversation for Kya to leave, the master healer seemed a little reluctant to depart just then, and kept looking at Asami and Korra with an impish little smile on her face that showed that while she was Tenzin's sister, she was definitely Bumi's as well.

Having grown up around the woman, Korra recognized the nature of the smile right away and sighed internally. "What is it, Kya?"

"Weeeeell," Kya grinned. "Honestly, I can't help myself. I have to ask, since you two seem oh-so-adamant about this pregnancy. Did you do some kind of kinky biological-fluid-bending? Or did you just share the man between the both of you the not-so-old-fashioned-way?"

Asami turned beet red and Korra face planted into the ground mightily. Even after she picked herself up off the floor, Korra couldn't help but blush furiously. "KYA!" She cried. "What kind of a question is _that_?! No! _No!_ We didn't do either of those things!"

Kya laughed, rubbing the back of her head with one hand even as she waved her other one in casual offhandedness. "Hey now, there's no need to get defensive or anything. I'm not judging; I was young once upon a time too you know! Actually, there was this one time on Ember Island-"

"Please, Kya!" Korra begged. This was way worse than The Talk. _Way worse._ "We really don't need the details." She snuck a glance out of the corner of her eyes at Asami for support, and was a little disturbed that there might have been a hint of disappointment in her girlfriend's green eyes at her interruption instead.

_'__What? WHAT?!'_

"Oh, come on now," Kya laughed. "What's there to be embarrassed about? You can feed Tenzin some line about Immaculate Conception in the Spirit World all you like, but _honestly_, the two of you are smart, independently-thinking, liberal-minded young women with progressive cultural attitudes and a history of problem-solving outside the box! You can't expect me to believe that a _miracle_ happened when there's a far more plausible explanation that just involves a little more open-mindedness about certain sexual prerogatives that really aren't even all that scandalous in the grand scheme of things if you'd just-"

"Oh, look at the time!" Korra hastily jumped to her feet. "Sorry Kya, but we kinda have dinner plans! We'll see you in a couple of weeks, okay?"

Eventually, they managed to get the master healer to leave, seeing her to the front doors of Sato Estate before going back to Asami's bedroom for some privacy.

"I can't believe what Kya was suggesting!" Korra muttered to herself. She knew that Kya was a bit of a hippie who had traveled around the world extensively in order to 'find herself', but she would have thought that that had entailed more embracing of trees and nature and less embracing of... um... other people. Possibly at the same time.

Asami seemed highly amused. "Well, I kinda wouldn't have minded hearing the story myself, actually..."

Korra gave Asami a very worried look and her girlfriend simply laughed. "Oh, stop with the saucer-sized eyes. Like I'd be willing to share you with anyone." She gave Korra a quick kiss on the cheek before going to the closet to find something to wear to the restaurant they were supposed to meet Mako and Bolin at tonight. "Although her ejaculate-bending theory could possibly hold some water."

"Ha ha." Korra deadpanned. "Very funny."

(Though, some part of her brain did suddenly find itself wondering at what temperature air and fire would have to be bent together in order to sustain the viability of the sperm_-no. Shut up, stupid brain! Shut up! If you're going to be thinking up with weird bending techniques, then at least try to figure out how earthbending could confirm pregnancy! Hmm... it must be some sort of __sonar/vibration based technique...'_ )

But without a clue as to where to even start attempting this technique herself, Korra simply sighed. "I wish Toph were here. I bet she'd be a skilled enough earthbender to detect something."

Asami laughed as she popped her head out of her closet in the midst of changing her top. "What, you don't want to go to Lin?"

"God no. That would be a bad idea and a half." Korra could just imagine the un-amused look the police Chief would give her.

But when Asami cocked her head to the side as if to ask, _'would it?'_ and Korra found herself thinking twice about it. She blinked a few times before she gave Asami a quizzical look.

"Seriously? Would you be okay with that? I thought... I thought you didn't want to let anyone know until later on."

Asami considered this as she buttoned up her shirt. "Well, that was just conventional advice, really, and I don't know if we can really call any of this conventional." She smiled dryly. "So if you want to ask Lin, I guess I don't really see a problem with that, other than it feels a little wrong that she should know before, you know, some of our _closer_ friends do."

Korra found herself a little startled. "Are you saying that you want to let Mako and Bolin know tonight?"

Asami looked a little lost. "I'm not really sure, honestly. But, I guess, if it happens to come up...?"

Her girlfriend trailed off into a shrug and Korra found herself lost in thought too.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Asami doesn't have a prostate; this isn't that kind of fic. =P But do me a favor and just say it out loud, even once. "Asami's." "Prostate."

... doesn't it just _sound _funnier than "Asami's spleen?" =P


	13. Two Reactions for the Price of One

Asami was a little surprised when she and Korra arrived at Kuang's Cuisine to see only Bolin waiting for them with Pabu on his shoulders but no sign of his brother. "Hey Bolin," she said as she exchanged hugs with the earthbender before giving the fire ferret a fond scratch on the head. "Where's Mako?"

"I'm not sure," Bolin said, confusion clearly on his face. If anyone on Team Avatar was going to be accused of being tardy, it would usually have been him. "He should be here by now."

Once upon a time, Bolin would have needed help getting access to the appropriate formal dining wear to even get into the restaurant in the first place, but that was before _'Nuktuk! Hero of the South'_ had turned him into the world's very first mover star, and he was very dashing in his dark brown suit. Asami really thought the civilian clothing suited the jovial earthbender much better than the stern uniform of Kuvira's army.

She herself was wearing a slim, sleeveless, high-necked wine-red dress from the back of her closet, while Korra had pulled out the two toned blue and white dress she'd worn to Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding; her wardrobe wasn't nearly as robust as Asami's was, and Asami idly wondered to herself if her girlfriend might be open to the idea of her expanding it for her just a little.

They waited another twenty minutes for Mako, idly playing with Pabu, but when he still didn't show up, they started to get worried; Mako could be an ass sometimes, but he'd never been a flake.

"Why don't you guys go on ahead?" Korra finally suggested, when the maitre d' came by for the fourth time to confirm if their party was whole. "Maybe Lin's just got him stuck down at the station or something. I'll go get him."

Asami nodded. "Alright, do you want us to order something for the two of you in advance?"

"Sure, that's a good idea. I'll leave the choice up to you." Korra gave Asami a quick peck on the cheek and neither of them thought too much about it before they realized they probably should have when a close-by waiter got so distracted at the public display of affection that he crashed into another one and sent a bunch of food flying through the air. Korra winced as she gave Asami an apologetic smile before quickly exiting the restaurant.

Asami internally sighed. _'At least the press didn't see that.' _

Being a prominent member of Republic City's high society meant Asami knew better than to look at the tabloids, but sometimes it got a little hard to ignore them when her own employees were giggling so loudly over the back pages in the lunch room.

Bolin didn't particular help the situation any when he gushed, "you two are sooo cute!" before hiding Pabu inside his suit when he noticed the maitre d' coming back to lead them into the restaurant. They sat at Asami's usual table (Future Industries ended up at Kuang's for business meals so often that they'd more or less dedicated a table in a nice and secluded corner of the fancy restaurant to its CEO's private use).

Once they sat down, Bolin wasted no time. "Oh, I can't believe you and Korra are actually together! Oh, I wanna hear all about it, Asami! You promised! Now don't spare the details!"

"Bolin, I'm really not sure if that's such a good idea..." But even though Asami said this, she couldn't help but find the supportive enthusiasm on Bolin's face very heartwarming and infectious.

"Oh, come on! Everyone's talking about you two! Are you really going to let me believe the tabloids got it right?" Bolin almost whined, though his smile and his eyes showed his words were in jest. "Because, romantic as it is, I'm pretty certain Korra didn't confess her love to you after seeing you share a passionate embrace with Varrick which caused her to realize the nature of her love just before protecting the both of you from being crushed under the weight of a flying satomobile while you were pulling a dozen orphans out from crushed rubble, one of whom has an incurable case of tuberculosis who you guys are now planning to adopt!"

Asami blinked before bursting out in laughter. "You can't be serious! Which one wrote that? The Star? The Sun?"

"Oh, that came from the RC Moon!" Bolin laughed. "The story in the Star was waaaay more entertaining and also had more waltzing wombats!"

* * *

><p>Several metal-bending police officers were taking off on their wires as Korra got to the station amidst a flurry of activity. It was complete luck that she managed to spy Mako as he hastily ran out of the building-under-repair and towards a waiting satomobile while throwing a jacket over his suit.<p>

"Mako!" Korra cried, hurrying towards him. "What's going on?!"

"Korra! What are you-? Never mind! Jump in!" Mako shouted.

Not even pausing to blink, Korra leapt onto the open passenger-side door of the vehicle as Mako gunned it past her and they raced off after the officers swinging ahead of them on metal cables.

"Sorry for not making it over to Kuang's, but we just got a massive break in a stolen goods case!" Mako shouted overtop of the police siren on his vehicle as they raced through the streets. "I've been tracking a missing shipment of platinum for days and we just got word that the smugglers are moving everything offshore right now!" He looked over at Korra and grinned. "We could really use some Avatar muscle tonight if you're up for it?"

Korra grinned back and fastened her seat belt. "Always!"

They swerved around a corner, and there was silence for a beat before Mako said, "I like the dress; are Asami and Bolin at the restaurant already?"

"Thanks, and yeah," Korra confirmed, scanning their surroundings to see where the metal-bending officers were going. "They were going to order for us in advance, but I'm not sure if that's such a good idea anymore. Turn left here!"

"On it." Mako did as Korra instructed and they rounded a tight corner before he snuck a quick look out of the corner of his eyes and smirked. "So hey, I've been dying to know, Korra. How did Asami tell you she was, you know, _into_ you?"

Korra blinked and gave Mako a confused look, but the look the firebender gave back to her was one of complete and honest caring, and Korra couldn't help but feel a hint of relief in her heart that her first love really did seem okay with it all.

"Do you really want the sordid details?" Korra asked.

Mako laughed. "Yeah. It's really pissing me off that the press seems to know more than me. So the more sordid, the better."

"Then... I guess this was on the third day of our vacation? Oh! Take a right over there!" Korra gave a bark of light-hearted laughter as she thrust her finger at the windshield. "Or was it the second? Well, anyway, have you heard of Koh the Face Stealer before?"

* * *

><p>"... and after we made sure there was at least 20 leagues between us, I just sort of... turned around and... kissed her." Asami finished the story to an all-ears Bolin, a shy and guilty smile on her face. "I mean, I guess at that point I was just so happy that I still had my face that I kinda wanted to use it. And before I knew it, Korra... was kissing me back."<p>

"Oh, _wow,_" Bolin breathed, the edges of his smile twisting somehow further upwards in delight. "And then what happened?"

* * *

><p>"... and something inside of me just sort of went... *click*, I guess." Korra said in the barest of soft whispers as she pressed herself up against the wall of the building. She and Mako were on one side of the storage building's freight doors, while three metal-bending officers were on the other, including the captain of the squad.<p>

"Kiss first and ask questions later, huh? Now that sounds like somebody-I-know's modus operandi." Mako smirked even as he joked quietly. "_Two_ somebodies, actually." He quieted down as the captain of the squad on the other side of the door raised his arm up into the air, and extended three of his fingers on his hand in a countdown.

3... 2... On the count of one, Korra jumped out in front of the freight door along with two of the metal-benders and with synchronized movements, they all made downward yanking actions with their arms and were able to metal-bend the massive door right off its hinges, flinging it away.

"FREEZE! POLICE!" Shouted the officers as they rushed in.

They caught the criminal element red handed, right in the middle of loading the stolen platinum onto pallets, roughly 8 mobsters, benders all of them, gawking stupidly at the police for just a moment.

And then the night air lit up with a litany of noise and excitement as all the elements blazed to life.

"So then what happened?!" Mako shouted over the chaos even as he launched several fists full of fire at the mobster closest to him, who summoned a chunk of concrete from the floor to throw back at him.

Korra laughed. "Well, that sort of... um... went on for a while and I kinda lost track of time." She twisted around a gout of flame and knocked the firebender who sent it at her back with a gust of wind. "It got pretty late and we needed to find some shelter for the night, so..."

* * *

><p>"<em>Inside <em>the Tree of Time?" Bolin's mouth dropped open in scandal. "R-really? Isn't that place sort of, um... _sacred_? Didn't the spirits get _pissy_ at you guys for being disrespectful? I mean, isn't it like, worse than getting it on inside a church or temple or something?"

"Well, um..." Asami was acutely embarrassed and couldn't quite figure out how she'd ended up recounting the circumstances of how she and Korra had given themselves to each other to Bolin. She really hadn't expected to divulge so much information to him at all, but he had been so eager and attentive that she'd found herself just talking and talking.

"I know it sounds bad, but, honestly, Bolin, after the Tree of Time more or less laid bare everything we'd been feeling in our hearts to each other so... so _completely_, it just... it just really felt... _right_. And all the little spirits whom were inside the tree experiencing this with us, god, there had to have been dozens of different kinds, they just all sort of started to... _glow_. And everything felt so warm and peaceful and..._ encouraging_," Asami's blush grew a little deeper. "I got the impression they were all just really_ happy_ for us, that they were trying to give us their blessing in some way..."

* * *

><p>"Wait a minute!" Mako grunted as he punched a guy square in the face and then threw him over his shoulder against another baddie. He gave Korra an incredulous look. "Your guys's <em>first time<em> was in front of an audience of pervy old voyeuristic spirits?!"

Korra slammed two other perps together and then froze them in ice. She shot Mako an incredulous look. "What?! No! They sort of faded away into nothing." Korra could still remember the awe-filled sensation that had suffused through her very being as she had witnessed the forms of the spirits all gently fade away into soft points of glowing light doting the entirety of the alcove in the Tree of Time, making it seem so much like she had been holding Asami in a field of fireflies against the night sky.

And then a spear of ice lobbed at her face brought her back into the present, and Korra hastily dodged out of the way.

"Anyway, it was like they were trying to give us privacy or something. Nobody was watching us while we... um... well, I guess, actually, maybe _one _spirit was sort of... um..."

* * *

><p>"Good evening, Miss Sato, Master Bolin," a waiter said formally to both Asami and Bolin before turning back to acknowledge his regular customer. "A glass of the '68 pinot, Miss Sato?" So used to their routine was the waiter that he had already started to fill her wine glass before Asami could stop him.<p>

"Oh, I'm sorry, Tsing, but I don't think I should be having any wine tonight. I'll stick with tea if you'd please?"

The waiter, Tsing, wasn't quite able to school his expression entirely and his eyebrows lifted in surprise; Asami Sato was one of his favorite customers because she was a woman of impeccable taste who always allowed him to pair the most complimentary drink with her dinner. He quickly stopped the flow of the wine, but it became a bit of a complicated situation because he couldn't rightly put the poured wine (which wasn't exactly inexpensive, either) back into the bottle and he gave Asami a bit of an awkward look.

Asami looked over at Bolin. "But maybe you might care for some, Bolin?" She covered easily for the poor waiter's mistake. "Tsing's amazing when it comes to wine knowledge; I can guarantee this will go very well with the roast."

Bolin blinked. "Oh, um, okay, sure." He reached out for the glass in front of Asami and brought it in front of himself. "Fill'er up, buddy!"

Tsing smiled in relief; trust Miss Asami Sato to be able to find a classy solution to his predicament. "Of course, Master Bolin."

After the waiter left, Bolin gave Asami a curious look. "How come you're not having any wine tonight, Asami?"

* * *

><p>Mako's eyeballs looked like they were going to fall right out of his head. He flapped his mouth open and closed a few times, even as bolts of fire blasted overtop of their hiding spot. Finally, he managed to spit out a very incredulous, "WHAT?!" just as a large chunk of concrete smashed the crates they were hiding behind to bits. <em>"WHAT?! <em>Korra, that's impossible! Babies don't come from storks! Don't you know that-_!"_

_'Four for four.'_

"If you finish that sentence, Mako, I swear to god!" Everyone had to dive for cover from the shrapnel, but Korra was able to erect a gust of wind around the both of them, re-directing the debris away from them safely, even as she shouted back to Mako in exasperation, "it was the Spirit World, Mako! Just believe me, okay?"

* * *

><p>Bolin almost dropped the glass of wine. "S-seriously?" He squeaked out. "You're not pulling my leg?"<p>

Asami smiled weakly and shook her head.

Bolin's face somehow got even more excited. "Oh wow! Oh WOW! OH WOW!" He cried. By now, Bolin was so loud he had attracted the attention of the three tables closest to them and he didn't seem to even notice. "Oh, Asami! I'm so happy for you two!" He stood right up and almost flipped the whole table over as he crushed his arms around Asami's shoulders, and Asami couldn't help but feel at the same time very warm yet very embarrassed at her friend's enthusiasm.

"Please, Bolin! You're making a scene!"

"Oh, right, sorry!" Laughing as he rubbed the back of his head, they sat back down and hastily cast looks of apology at the other customers they had disrupted until the other diners finally looked away. But Bolin couldn't help but continue to grin with sparkly eyes at Asami, though he kept his voice down. "Oh wow! Congratulations, Asami! I-! I can't believe this! This is incredible! Hey! You know you can come to me if you need any help with it, right? I'm really good with kids!"

Asami smiled warmly, and gave one of Bolin's hands a squeeze. "Well, it's going to be a while before the baby gets here. It's so early I can't even be confirmed as pregnant yet, but, thanks Bolin. That's really sweet of you."

Bolin squeezed Asami's hand back. "Anytime, Asami! Anytime!" His eyes grew kind. "So how are _you_ feeling about this? And how's Korra taking it?"

* * *

><p>Korra slammed the criminal against the police car a little harder than she should have, but she was honestly a little ticked off at him for having ripped her dress with his last volley of ice shards. "Well," she grunted, as she froze water into ice-cuffs around his wrists, "we called Kya up today to try to do a checkup, and she said Asami was perfectly healthy..."<p>

"Yeah," Mako slapped a pair of cuffs against the wrists of a criminal. "But... you know, how's she _doing_?"

With the battle won and the criminals taken away, Korra finally found herself with a chance to breathe. She leaned against a stack of crates as she pondered Mako's question, even as the firebender came up to her, dusting off his hands and giving her a curious look. "Korra?"

"Actually," Korra finally managed to say after a moment of quiet contemplation. "She's taking it well. Really well. A little _too_ well, even. I mean, those first few days in the Spirit World, we were both completely freaked out, and I think that if I had been the one carrying, I'd _still_ be freaking the hell out. But the last couple of days, she's just sort of..."

"... being way too calm and super rational and logical about everything?" Mako couldn't help but smile when the astonished look on Korra's face told him he'd hit the nail right on the head. "Hmm. That's a pretty classic Asami coping technique."

Korra wrinkled her brow. "Really? That doesn't sound like her..."

Mako shrugged. "Well, I know she didn't really come to me with very many problems while you were away. Even while the press was blasting some of her city planning decisions."

And Korra wanted to kick herself for not noticing sooner.

Asami had always been the kind of girl who felt the need to rely on herself a little too much. Oh, she'd gratefully accept help if it was offered, and she would go ask for it when she realized she really needed it, but it usually took her a while to even get to that realization, and by then, the situation had to have gotten pretty desperate. When it came to support; Asami Sato was quick to offer; not so quick to ask.

_'Are you sure you don't want me to move in? To help take care of you?'_

_'I'm not whale-sized yet, Korra. I'll be fine.'_

Korra was silent for a while before she finally said, "She's... actually pretty darn scared right now, isn't she?"

Mako shrugged. "Well, you just said that you'd be if you were in her shoes, didn't you?"

"Hell yeah."

_'Dammit! How could I be so obtuse? I've said it to her directly, but... how do I let Asami know I'll always be there for her?' _

And then Mako finally asked, "so how are you going to ask her to marry you?"

And Korra stared at Mako like he had two heads.

* * *

><p>Bolin blinked. "What?"<p>

The look on Asami's face became really, really awkward. "Bolin... I'm not quite sure how to answer your question."

Bolin's face crinkled in disappointment. "Oh, come on, Asami! Please? Since you're going to have a baby, you gotta know how they're made, right? Can't you tell me? I've always been so curious about that!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So I was trying to replicate that thing they do on TV where they cut between two different scenes happening at the same time in different locations and I couldn't think of a more elegant way of doing this in text form besides drabbles with lots of line breaks and I don't know if it quite turned out the way I was hoping it would. =_= Let me know if this worked for you or not?

There's probably going to be a little bit of a slow down between updates here as I kinda contemplate where to go with this. I've been posting this story as I write it, and it's sort of mutated beyond it's original cracky-scope and I've come to the realization that I should prooobably give a little more thought as to where I'm steering this boat to avoid icebergs. =_=

Thank you so much for those of you who have been following/favoring this story, and to those of you who've left reviews - Aceina, Apollo Child1512, Brittana4lyfe, Dasuku, dickard23, dragonball256, Dragonblood66, Firehawk242, Guest, Hawk2012, Hecate, Hera sama, JavelinW, kaizer20, Kataang0508, kati1162, KuroFeng, lokfan79, Maleficient-darkgoodwitch2416, MayFairy, Mistic Shadow, Noodles, Ryoko05, Sonaan44, Spikesagitta, super-noodles, suziegon, untiltoday, valeetg, zurupuppy!

I'll get to responding to them! I swear!


	14. Not Just a Booty Call (Well, Maybe)

**A/N:** ... So... *cough* this chapter needs to be bumped up to M now because a really, really, REALLY hot piece of Korrasami fanart came across my dash the other day, and now I can't help myself. This fic will still remain T rated, but I'll give warnings for those individual chapters that prooobably shouldn't be consumed in a public place. =P

In the words of a fanfic writer I really admire: the hanky-panky in this chapter sits somewhere between physically impossible and dangerously improbable. Don't try this at home kids. =P

* * *

><p>Lin Beifong was still at the station when Korra, Mako and the rest of the metal-bending officers brought the mobsters in for processing. She folded her arms across her chest in amusement as she watched Korra bring in one of the criminals and hand him off to another police officer for processing. "Since when did the Avatar have the time to get involved in run-of-the-mill stolen goods cases?"<p>

"I _don't_ have the time," Korra replied easily, relieved that the smirk on the police chief's face showed that Lin wasn't going to actually make a big deal out of the fact that technically Korra wasn't part of her force. "I had to get creative to find a way to catch up with Mako; you're working him way too hard, Chief." Korra gave Lin a lopsided grin even as she noticed Mako rolling his eyes out of the corner of hers.

"Someone's gotta pick up the slack; not all of us can go gallivanting off on vacation, no matter how well deserved it was. I can't believe the number of opportunistic bastards there are ready to take advantage of the upheaval." Lin shook her head in disgust. "I'll be happy when we can get everyone into more permanent housing; those refugee shelters we've setup are a breeding ground for criminal activity. Tell that girlfriend of yours to step up that housing construction division of her's, yeah? I'll be glad when we can get things back to normal."

"Asami didn't make it home until past midnight last night," Korra replied curtly. "She's up to her eyeballs in work and she's not going to cut any corners or okay any subpar construction plans. That'll just bring more trouble in the future." And then Korra paused, before giving Lin a smile. "And how'd you know she's my girlfriend anyway?"

"Don't insult my intelligence, Avatar." Lin rolled her eyes as she took one of the criminals handed to her by one of her officers. "Good night."

"Hey, Lin?"

The police chief glanced back over her shoulder. "Yeah? What is it?"

Korra rubbed the back of her head, suddenly sheepish. "I was wondering if you might be able to drop by the Sato Estates sometime to see Asami. And I."

Lin raised an eyebrow. She hadn't missed the pause between 'Asami' and 'And I'. "Excuse me?"

"Um. Well, there's something we were hoping to get your expertise on."

"My expertise?" Lin frowned. "Are you having security problems? I could probably take a look to see what sort of holes you might have in your setup."

"Oh, it's nothing like that," Korra couldn't help but feel a little awkward bringing this up at the police station. "It's just... well, just come over when you have the time, alright? We're not in a hurry or anything, just, whenever you get a chance."

"Well, that might take a little while; I'm supposed to be supporting president Raiko for the next few days on his tour through Yu Dao. I'll come by when I get the chance."

Korra nodded. "That's fine."

And then Lin left and Korra turned to Mako. "Think we should still head to the restaurant?"

The detective looked at his watch and winced. "I dunno, Korra. It's past midnight. I can't see Asami and Bolin having waited for us this long. Or, at least, I sure hope they haven't..."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Korra sighed as she waved goodbye to him.

She decided to swing by Kuang's just in case her girlfriend really had stayed and was relieved to learn that she hadn't. _'I remember Miss Sato did ask for dinner to be packed up though.'_ One of the waiters had offered helpfully.

So Korra made her way back to the Sato Estates and knocked on the front door, not having her glider on her to just head up to Asami's bedroom directly. One of the servants, a butler named Yang who Korra recognized in passing, opened the door, looking very annoyed to be answering so late.

"Oh. Avatar Korra. Is Miss Asami expecting you at this hour?" He asked stiffly.

Korra was a little surprised at Yang's question - as well as the cool tone in which it was asked - and suddenly felt a bit awkward as she realized that, for all that they were in love with each other, were seeing each other, and heck, had even taken the first steps to starting a family together already - they hadn't actually told any of Asami's household staff about this yet, save for Grandma Yin, who didn't really count.

Korra found herself rubbing the back of her head. "Um, I'm pretty sure she is? But I'm not really sure..."

Yang's frown deepened. "I take it from your answer that this is an unannounced visit then?"

"Um..."

"Yang, who's at the door? Is it Korra?" The avatar couldn't help but feel relieved to hear her girlfriend's voice from inside and a smile came to her face.

"Indeed it is, Miss. Shall I let her in?"

"Of course!" Asami appeared at the door with her hair a little damp, as though she'd just come out of the showers. She was wearing a dressing robe and a big smile on her face which morphed into a look of surprise and worry as she noticed the damage Korra's clothing had taken. "Korra! What happened?" She quickly reached out and grabbed her girlfriend's hand to pull her inside.

"I'm fine, Asami," Korra replied guiltily. "Mako got held up and I was just helping him out with what held him up. I'm totally fine; it's just the dress that's seen better days."

"Thank god. Bolin and I got worried when you didn't come back. " Asami gave a sigh of relief even as she gave her butler a disappointed look. ""Yang," she chided gently, "you should know better than that. Korra's always welcome here. _Always._"

"Is that so, Miss Asami?" The old butler sniffed a bit icily. "Very well then; I shall inform the rest of the household staff," but as he left, both of them could hear him muttering under his breath, "at least she's not climbing in through the young Miss's bedroom window in the middle of the night again, like some good-for-nothing _scoundrel._"

"Hey!" The remark didn't miss Korra's ears and her eyebrows shot up in affront but before she could call the butler out on his snark, Asami had given her an apologetic smile and pulled her away. Korra couldn't help but frown, still perturbed at the butler's insinuations as she followed her girlfriend through the house. "Asami, I'm not just here on a booty call you know!"

"You aren't? Darn. And here I am with nothing on underneath this dressing robe." Asami said dryly, feigning disappointment in a slightly exaggerated manner and Korra couldn't help but smile, feeling her annoyance fade away as she wondered if Asami was joking or not about the robe. "Don't mind Yang, Korra. He's on the old-fashioned side but he means well. So have you eaten yet? What happened with Mako? "

Korra hadn't eaten yet, and they went to the kitchen for some of those leftovers. Korra explained what had happened to her girlfriend while Asami let her know how dinner with Bolin had gone.

Korra laughed as she swallowed. "What?! Bolin doesn't know how babies are made?! Are you serious?"

"Yeah." Asami cringed. "Apparently, the extent of his sexual education was Mako telling him when he was 13 years old to, _'keep it in your pants until you're married'_."

"Oh geez." Korra laughed. "Well... that's not _bad_ advice, I guess..."

Asami smiled wryly. "Wishing someone gave you that advice when _you_ were 13?"

Korra coughed. "Well, to be completely fair to my parents, I don't think they could have seen this one coming."

"Nor mine. If they had, I don't think I would've been able to get Yang to let you into the house at all; you'd still be stuck using the window."

They shared a laugh before fading into a comfortable silence. Korra watched Asami thoughtfully as she chewed on her food. She noticed when Asami's expression grew pensive as she put her hands around the cup of tea she had poured and stared silently into its waters.

Korra's earlier words to Mako echoed in her ears. _'She's... actually pretty darn scared right now, isn't she?'_

Swallowing the mouthful and putting the sandwich down, Korra reached out to touch one of her girlfriend's hands gently. "Asami? What are you thinking about?"

And Asami looked up into Korra's eyes, and Korra could see the flash of insecurity and anxiety there before Asami managed to school her expression back into her regular, calmly smiling one. "Hmm? Oh, nothing much. Just... just silly thoughts."

Korra frowned. Looking down at Asami's hand she was touching, Korra tugged at it more insistently, pulling it away from the teacup to firmly hold between her own palms. "Tell me?"

For a moment, Asami seemed a little lost, like she wasn't quite sure what to say to Korra, but Korra just continued to look into her eyes imploringly, and before long, Asami had to look away, that mask of calm she'd been using to defend herself with for the last week finally set aside.

"... It's really nothing, Korra. I'm just being silly. I'm just... I guess it's just starting to sink in, you know? I'm... I'm going to be someone's _mother_. How am I supposed to know what to do when I can barely remember the sort of things my own used to do for me?"

Korra remained patiently silent; the far away expression on Asami's face told her that her girlfriend wasn't finished, that she was still trying to work her way up to what was _really_ worrying her.

The silence stretched on for a while.

"... what if I end up being a terrible mother?" Asami finally whispered softly. "What if I... what if I make a mistake? A big one? And I regret it, but it's too late and she ends up hating me? What if she can't forgive me for my mistakes?" Asami's swallowed, stubbornly blinking back moisture that was threatening to gather at the corners of her eyes. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "What if she ends up hating me for the rest of my life?"

And as she said this, it became abundantly apparent to Korra the true nature of the fears running through Asami's heart.

_'Oh, god, how could I be so dense?'_

Hiroshi's funeral had been held several days before Varrick and Zhu Li's wedding, which still made it not very long ago at all. Asami had remained quietly strong through the entire affair, and Korra had thought she had come a long way to making peace with the loss, but finding herself about to be a parent could only have brought back thoughts about her departed own.

Korra quickly got up and pulled Asami into a tight hug. She didn't say anything for a long time, simply holding Asami as she squeezed her eyes shut and shuddered against her, stroking her long, raven locks and kissing her gently on the top of her head. It wasn't until Asami stopped trembling and extracted herself from Korra's embrace, that Korra was finally able to say to her, still holding her hands, "Asami, your dad knew you forgave him at the end. He knew you loved him at the end. That's why he was able to make the sacrifice he did. You gotta know that. He's at peace. And you... there's no_ way_ you'd make the same mistakes he did. You already had the chance to, years ago, remember? And you didn't. You'll make a fantastic mom, Asami. You'll see." Korra smiled impishly. "Hey, look at what a good job you do feeding and clothing me!"

Asami couldn't help but smile. "Korra, your dress is ripped and covered in dirt and you're eating cold leftovers."

"And I've never been happier!" Korra's smile stretched into the crooked one that never failed to make Asami chuckle, which she promptly did now.

They lapsed back into silence once more. Korra could tell that Asami was still pensive, and still had a lot on her mind, but at least this time, the small smile on her face wasn't completely fake.

Korra swallowed. "Hey Asami? I know we've already talked about this, and you've already said no, but would you please reconsider? Let me stay with you. I want to look after you, and I want to look after this baby we've made together. I know you're going to be a fantastic mom, Asami, and I... I want to be one too."

Asami's eyes widened in surprise, and Korra thought she could just fall forever into her girlfriend's magnificent green eyes. And then those eyes softened fondly. "Oh, Korra, come here." She pulled Korra forward to give her a long kiss before breaking it off to rest their foreheads together. "Of course you can. I'm sorry if I might have made you feel unwelcome; I guess I was just unsure about how _fast_ everything's been happening. And I know with everything else going on, everyone really needs the Avatar right now, but..." And Asami's smile got a little shy. "... I guess that includes me too, huh?"

"Damn straight!" Korra grinned. "And don't let it ever be said that I don't have my priorities straight!" And as she said this, she scooped Asami up over her shoulder and headed upstairs.

"Korra, put me down!" Asami laughed. "Are you trying to carry me as much as you can before you can't anymore?"

Korra scoffed. "You could put on a hundred pounds and I'd still be able to bench press you."

Asami raised an eyebrow in challenge. "Oh _really_ now?"

The Avatar grinned. "What do you wanna bet?" Somewhere in the back of her mind, a rational part of Korra's brain politely coughed and pointed out that her boast might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but Korra simply told that part of her brain to bugger off and stop bothering her when she was trying to showboat in front of Asami.

The look Asami threw Korra was distinctly coy. "I'm sure we'll think of something."

They made it upstairs and Asami made sure her bedroom door was 100% locked this time.

And true to word, Korra somehow managed to keep Asami from setting even a single toe down on the floor, twisting her girlfriend about her torso as she aimed to pull Asami's clothes off of her body piece by piece without setting her down.

"Korra!" Asami laughed, even as Korra twisted her off her shoulder and flipped her into a frontal carry as she used the momentum to pull Asami's dressing gown off her shoulders to hang at her waist. Asami instinctively coiled her legs around Korra's hips for support even as she clung to Korra's shoulders, giving a squeak of surprise at the unexpected (wo)manhandling.

"Oh." Much to Korra's delighted surprise, she discovered that Asami _hadn't_ been joking earlier; she really hadn't been wearing anything under her robe - not even underwear - and she found herself with a face full of Asami's cleavage. She blinked a few times in appreciation before (reluctantly?) turning her attention up to meet her girlfriend's eyes with her own, an impish smile on her face. "You really _were_ waiting for a booty call, weren't you?"

And Asami blushed hard. "... oh, hush you." She pouted, before leaning downwards to kiss Korra deeply, even as she played with the zipper on the back of Korra's dress and pulled it down. With a bit of wiggling and juggling (and a whole heckuva lot of laughing and giggling), they managed to fully disrobe each other and Korra might have even felt a little thankful to the icebending mobster who had serendipitously damaged her dress such that it allowed Asami to get it off of her that much easier.

And Korra ended up bracing Asami up against a wall for leverage even as she lavished attention on her girlfriend's sensitive breasts to her encouraging sighs and Asami wrapped her arms around Korra's head and pulled her in, desperately seeking the touch of Korra's mouth and lips and tongue more firmly upon her skin, even as rolled her head back in rapture, further exposing her throat which trembled with each shuttered moan of Korra's name. Asami's legs squeezed tighter around Korra's hips, and Korra's fingers dug more urgently into her bottom for purchase as they rocked against each other, slowly at first, and then faster and faster.

Korra gave a groan of pleasure, feeling her knees grow weak as she took in the utterly intoxicating sight of Asami spending. It was all she could do to not drop her girlfriend as Asami's body grew momentarily limp, slumped forward against Korra's own as she stumbled towards the bed and somehow managed to throw themselves both onto it.

Asami laid on her back with Korra resting atop of her, both of them sweating and gasping and shaking from the exertion before Asami weakly sat up and gave Korra a kiss on her brow. "Your turn." She murmured softly as she coaxed Korra into rolling onto her back.

Except that the bed wasn't very big and Korra ended up falling off of the edge of it with a _'thump'_ and an "ow!"

"Oh my god, Korra! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" The sultriness in Asami's eyes quickly turned into alarm as she peered over the side of her mattress.

"We've gotta do something about this bed!" Korra winced as she sat up and rested her elbows on the mattress, rubbing at the lump that had appeared on her forehead. "What is this, my 3rd time falling out of it?"

And then they looked at each other and couldn't help but burst out into laughter at their complete and utter dorkiness.

"Come here," Asami finally said, after the spell of laughter finally passed, pulling Korra back onto the bed and pressing her into the blankets (and making sure she didn't accidentally roll off the other side.)

Asami kissed Korra from head to toe and back again, flipped her around and repeated it, caressed her everywhere until her limbs had all turned to jelly, and didn't stop until Korra couldn't tell up from down or left from right or even night from day anymore, her head was spinning so dizzily from the arousal. And just when Korra thought she'd die or go into the avatar state or something from the almost torturous anticipation, Asami finally slipped her fingers where Korra's body had been keening for her touch, and Korra's cries soon echoed into the night.

Their lovemaking lasted well into the morning; the sun might have even been threatening to peek its head over the horizon when they finally went to sleep.

Korra felt her eyes grow heavy as she laid snuggled up in Asami's arms. "Asami...?"

Her girlfriend didn't answer her, already asleep.

And Korra couldn't help but smile as she let sleep claim her.

That she could have Asami like this every night seemed an impossible dream to her, (though she imagined that they'd probably have to take things a little easier further into the pregnancy.)

The last thoughts that went through Korra's head before she drifted off was the rest of the conversation she had had with Mako earlier that evening.

_'So how are you going to ask her to marry you?'_

_Korra had stared at Mako, stunned. She remained wordless for a very long time, before the answer slowly came to her "... I'm... not."_

_Mako's brow furrowed in disapproval. "Korra. Really?"_

_"Not yet, anyway. I don't want her to think that I'm asking to marry her out of some sense of responsibility or obligation for the baby, and I'm afraid that if I ask her that now, that's all it'll seem like why I'm asking. When I ask her... I want her to know it's because I love her, and want to be with her for the rest of our lives."_

_"And don't you?"_

_"I do! But we've also only been going out for all of what? 12 days now? How seriously can she really take a proposal from me if we've only been together for less than two weeks time? No, I'm going to do this right, Mako. Asami deserves nothing less."_


	15. Have Naga Don't Need a Uhaul

Despite having already made the decision to take the next step together, it was actually more than a week later before Korra got the chance to pack up her things from Air Temple Island to formally move into the Sato Estates.

With reconstruction efforts in full swing, and President Raiko on a diplomatic trip to Yu Dao in an effort to re-establish disrupted supply chains and sooth over frayed tempers against Republic City for perceived arrogance in snapping up all available construction supplies and tradesmen when so much hurt was being felt all over the rest of the country, Korra found herself stepping up as a leader in the city and keeping its citizens in good spirits in ways only an iconic hero could really accomplish.

It meant a lot to the people of the city to see their Avatar amongst their ranks, working shoulder to shoulder with the cleanup and restoration, and morale ended up being a lot higher than Korra could have hoped for. Some days, she marvelled at the fickleness of Republic City's citizens that they could be so much more forgiving of the Kuvira calamity and the creation of the third spirit portal in the heart of the city than they had been when spirit vines had overrun it (ultimately, she decided it was just better to not look a gift horse in the mouth and accepted the 78% approval rating with relief).

It didn't take too long before a waterbender on one of her cleanup crews asked her if the stories they'd been reading in the papers and hearing on the radio about her and a certain Miss Sato were true and Korra confirmed with a shy but pleased smile as she rubbed the back of her head that they were. (It proooobably would have been wiser if Korra had asked exactly _how_ the stories went before confirming their endings were correct - that is, the fact that she and Asami were seeing each other - but oh well.) The man had then talked to his wife, who then told her hairdresser, who then enlightened her mother who then passed the message onto her grocer, and that night, the radio airwaves went absolutely ballistic with gossip and talk. The tabloids had to struggle to come up with even more outrageous commentary in the morning, just to keep up. All in all, the entertainment did a lot to keep spirits high.

On Asami's end, things were just as hectic, if not more so. Future Industries never stopped running, with all factories and work yards running at capacity and all construction and cleanup rigs fully deployed by alternating day and night crews. The company's CEO had stayed firmly at the helm with the rest of the engineering department, developing building and community plans for the relocation of the city's financial and business core, even as they simultaneously came up with more efficient ways to salvage materials from existing unusable buildings to cut down on unnecessary waste. On more than one occasion, Korra ended up gliding to Future Industry Towers in the middle of the night to pull a sleeping Asami away from her desk to bring her home.

Korra had smirked, and wished she had a photographer handy so she could capture some sort of evidence of her normally super classy and graceful girlfriend asleep at her desk with enough drool leaking from the corner of her mouth onto the blueprint her head was pillowed on to cause the piece of paper to stick to the side of her face when Korra had gingerly picked her up to carry her out of the office and into a waiting satomobile.

Luckily, one of Asami's chief engineers caught Korra trying to steal out of Future Industries Tower with Asami on her back and came to rescue the blueprint still stuck on the side of her boss's face. "Thanks for coming to get her, Avatar," the young woman said, unable to suppress her smile. "We tried to make her go home earlier, but old habits die hard I guess."

Korra raised an eyebrow. "Does she pull all-nighters like this often?"

"Not so much since you've came back to Republic City, but during the first few years when she took over the company from Mr Sato, I think she slept here more often than she slept at home."

This knowledge was enough to give Korra pause and she looked back onto her sleeping girlfriend with a mixture of pride and worry on her features.

Asami had woke up groggily on the way home, but Korra managed to sooth her back to sleep and the raven-haired engineer remained mostly out of it until Korra got her home, stripped off her clothes and tucked her into bed. It was a testament to just how tired the young industrialist was.

"Honestly," Korra had murmured in exasperation to herself as she watched Asami sleep that night, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes. "If this was how you were going to take care of yourself, how the heck were you ever going to manage without me?" And she wasn't even thinking about the baby.

"I probably wouldn't have." Asami responded sleepily, not opening her eyes even as she snuggled a little tighter against her girlfriend. "Without you, what would have been the point?"

Korra's eyes widened for a moment before the small smile on Asami's face let Korra know Asami had been jesting, and her gaze softened. "Don't say it that, not even as a joke," Korra admonished lightly. "And not just because you're supposed to be thinking for more than just yourself now."

"Mmm. Yes, Mom."

"Hmph. Kinda creepy if you call me that, given the circumstances."

Asami chuckled tiredly. "Yes, Mother of my child." She opened her eyes and gave Korra a conciliatory kiss on her shoulder. "Thanks for coming to get me. And I'm sorry we haven't really been able to spend very much time together. Do you want to do something together tomorrow? Outside of this bedroom, I mean?"

"Actually, Tenzin sort of asked if we could have dinner with Pema and the kids tomorrow. Would you be up for that? I figure I can get the rest of my stuff at the same time."

"That sounds good. It'll be good to get the rest of your things." Asami paused. "Do the kids know about the baby yet?"

Korra shook her head. "I don't think they do."

"Hmm."

* * *

><p>They were greeted the next evening by a slightly surly Meelo, who rushed out to greet them when they arrived on Air Temple on an air scooter, dispelling the ball of air when he reached them to scramble the last few steps to Asami. "Beautiful lady!" Meelo cried, looking at her from all different directions before breathing a sigh of relief. "You're okay!"<p>

Then he looked at Korra and crossed his arms in front of his chest defensively, turning his nose up at her with an icy sniff. "Well! Look who finally decided to show up for dinner! It's been so long, I don't even know you anymore!"

"Nice to see you too, Meelo," Korra grinned as she ruffled Meelo's hair as they headed over to the living quarters. "Sorry I haven't been back for a while; it's just been crazy busy."

"So busy you couldn't even manage a proper _meal_?" Meelo continued to pout. "The radio says you've been eating Asami. That's gross, Korra!"

Korra face-planted mightily into the ground, cracking the concrete with her skull while Asami's eyes widened and a whole family of sweat drops danced nervously over her head.

"I mean, why would you ever resort to cannibalism?!" Meelo threw his hands up in the air. "You could've just come home for some rice and vegetables anytime, you know!"

Korra got up and rubbed at the giant white bandaged 'X' on her brow. "You shouldn't be listening to those sorts of radio shows, Meelo. They get all sorts of details wrong. I think they just meant to say that I've been eating in at Asami's." Her girlfriend gave her a side-ways look out of the corner of her eyes and Korra coughed. "Aaaaaand by that, I mean, uh, I've been having dinner at Asami's house."

"Oh. Thank goodness." Meelo gave Asami a relieved smile. "Because I was really worried that sucking face wasn't enough for Korra and now she was starting to munch on you or something."

Neither Asami or Korra said anything, though for some reason Asami chose that moment to casually adjust her collar around her throat and flip her hair over her left shoulder.

They made their way towards the kitchen just as the rest of the family was gathering for dinner and after exchanging hugs and words of greeting, they all sat down.

"I'm really glad you could come by too, Asami," Pema said warmly to the raven-haired engineer. "It's been a while since we've had you over for dinner."

"It has been a while, hasn't it? Thank you for having me," Asami replied easily as she sat down at the square table beside Korra, Tenzin and Pema on another side with Ikki and Jinora opposite them. As though on cue, Meelo and Rohan started wrestling as they fought over which one of them got to sit beside Asami.

"I wanna sit beside her!"

"No me!"

In the end, Meelo won, but mostly by default since Jinora said Rohan should sit beside her so that she could cut up the bak choi for her baby brother.

"You guys know that we hope you'll still be coming over lots, even after Korra's moved out, right?" The mother of four continued, winking playfully. "For baby-sitting if nothing else?"

Pema's words caught all of her kids' attention and they all whirled at her.

"Wait what? Korra's moving out? Where's she's going? Why is she leaving? Can I have her room?" Ikki asked, even as her older sister stopped in mid-slice of a piece of green to blink her eyes in surprise at her mother.

Everyone turned their attention onto Korra. She traded an awkward look with Asami who could only return it with a helpless look of her own before Korra rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Um, well, Asami and I've decided to move in together at her place, what with Air Temple Island being so short on space right now. And as handy as it is to be living here while it doubles as City Hall... I'd really like to keep some sort of separation between my political service and my personal life..."

Jinora's eyes widened and a blush highlighted her cheeks even as a knowing smile came to her face. She opened her mouth to say something but her younger sister beat her to the punch.

"Oh oh oh!" Ikki cried, grinning massively. She looked back and forth between Korra and her mother excitedly. "Is Korra and Asami getting married? Is that why they're moving in together?"

"Ikki, what have we told you about outbursts?" Tenzin chided his youngest daughter gently. He gave Korra and Asami an apologetic look, and that was enough to confirm to both women that while he may or may not have told his wife about Asami's pregnancy, he certainly hadn't told his children yet about the news - which served Korra and Asami just fine for now.

_'Wow.'_ Korra couldn't help but think to herself. _'Saw that one coming by a mile.'_ She was very glad that she and Asami had talked the night before about this, so that they weren't blindsided by the direction Ikki had taken dinner conversation. "Actually, no, we're not getting married. Not yet, anyway - we're pretty sure we're not ready for that step yet." Korra said to the youngster as she and Asami had rehearsed, even as she gave Asami's hand a squeeze under the table. "But we thought that moving in together might be a good way to help our relationship grow a little further, and might even help us get ready for that step."

"Oh I see that makes sense." Ikki nodded eagerly. "And I guess if you're already having sleepovers at Asami's every night anyway then you might as well keep your clothes at her house too, right? So you don't have to come back in the morning to change?"

Korra laughed a little nervously, glad that none of the younger kids seemed to be picking up on the unintended implications in Ikki's words, though Tenzin, Pema and Jinora suddenly all seemed to be attacked by coughing fits at the same time. "Uh, yeah. I guess I can't argue there..."

"Um..." Jinora finally got a chance to get a word in edgewise from her younger sibling. "Isn't it a bit soon for you guys to be moving in already? I mean, you haven't been dating for very long..." She asked, a pensive expression on her face as she looked from Korra to Asami and back again, and Korra couldn't help but feel warm inside at the teenager's sisterly concern towards her. For all that Korra was older than Jinora, the teen had always been wise and mature beyond her years, and the thoughtfulness of her question was not unexpected from her at all (her parents, for that matter, were both wearing expressions that suggested that they highly agreed with their eldest born, but, as they weren't _actually_ Korra's folks, they didn't quite know exactly how best to express this concern).

"You know, some part of me thinks you're probably right, Jinora," Asami replied, truthfully and honestly, "but I think it probably helps that we've been pretty close as friends for a long time already." She gave Korra an impish look. "Korra and I have talked it through and we're prepared for the risks, so hopefully this won't crash and burn too spectacularly."

"It won't." Korra gave Asami a fond smile. "You'll see."

"It makes sense to me." Ikki nodded confidently before cocking her head quizzically at her older sister. "So when are you going to move in with Kai?"

Tenzin looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

Jinora sputtered. "W-what?! I don't-! That's-!" Her blush intensified tenfold. "Shut up, Ikki!"

The rest of the dinner went largely without incident, and afterwards, Korra and Asami went to Korra's room to pack up the rest of her things, and Asami was surprised that Korra's room was almost entirely barren until she remembered that Korra's belongings had already been packed and moved into its current location by some air acolytes while they'd been on vacation.

"That's me." Korra replied, zipping up a duffle-bag and throwing it over her shoulder.

Asami boggled. "That's it? You don't have anything else?"

"Not really. I really didn't bring very much from home and half my regular rotation's already in your closet."

"Wow. I gotta give this 'no material possessions' thing a try. It sounds so refreshing, though I suppose the house would feel even bigger and emptier than it already does." Asami's expression grew pensive as she looked down at the edge of the bed she was sitting on and idly ran her hand over the hard mattress.

Noticing that expression, Korra sat down beside her girlfriend and gave her a curious look. "What's on your mind?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing much," Asami murmured. "I just... I just can't believe that, just like that, you're out of here and in with me." She laughed. "I mean, you haven't even used this bed once, have you?"

Korra raised an eyebrow and gave Asami a lopsided grinned. "... are you saying you want to?"

Asami gave Korra an amused look. She leaned in to give Korra a kiss which lingered for a few moments before they heard a soft, _'oh!'_ and pulled apart, turning to look back at the door.

Jinora, Ikki, Meelo and Rohan had all poked their heads in through the opening like a row of dominoes.

Meelo gave Rohan a smug look. "See, little brother? Still think beautiful women sucking face is gross?"

The toddler gave his older brother a confused look.

"Sorry to interrupt," Jinora said, clearly embarrassed. "But, we were just wondering if we could say goodbye to Korra with one last air scooter race...?"

Korra's eyebrows wrinkled as she found her heart very touched by the hopeful vulnerability in Jinora's request. "Oh, come here, you guys." She got up to give the kids a big group hug, squeezing them tightly. "Please don't think this is goodbye. You'll still be seeing me lots! I promise."

Asami smiled kindly as she stood up as well, and came over to the group hug to ruffle Meelo's hair. "And you all know you're welcome at Sato Estates anytime, right? We've got lots of room if you want to sleepover."

"We know." Jinora said, though she smiled and nodded her head thankfully at the offer. "It's just... it's not going to be the same without Korra living here, you know? I mean, even though the air nation splits its time living in each of the Air Temples, _this_ temple is home."

"I know what you mean, Jinora." Korra sighed and then squeezed all the kids tightly against her again. "I'm going to miss you guys too."

The hug lasted a while, before Korra released the four siblings, and then grinned down at them. "Alright, so where's the race to?"

Meelo grinned and summoned his air scooter then and there, jumping out the window and busting the shutters right off their hinges. "Last one to the ferry's a rotten Elephant Eagle Egg!"

Korra laughed and summoned her own air scooter, jumping out the window with Jinora, Ikki and Rohan hot on her trail.

The last thing Asami heard as she smiled after the kids was Ikki crying out indignantly, "and no going into the Avatar State this time, Korra!"


	16. Them

It wasn't until almost two weeks later that Lin Beifong finally had a chance to head over to the Sato Estates to see Korra and Asami.

Grandma Yin opened the front door and squinted at her in confusion before recognition dawned and her eyes widened. "Oh! You're Chief Beifong with the police, aren't you? How can I help you?"

"I'm here to see Korra and Asami," Lin replied briskly, stepping into the house and casting an eye about her surroundings, mostly out of habit. Lin didn't recognize the elderly woman who had let her in, and her traditional earth kingdom styled clothing threw her for a bit of a loop, since she had thought the Sato's were originally from the fire nation, though something about the elderly woman seemed very familiar.

It wasn't Lin's first time at the Sato Estates, but the last time she had been here was to arrest Hiroshi Sato, and those circumstances hadn't exactly lent themselves very well to admiring the mansion. Something had noticeably changed since her last visit though, and if Lin had to put her finger on it, she'd be hard pressed to be able to quantify what that something was. It wasn't anything physical, but rather, an overall feeling of warmth. Lin was not the kind of woman who could normally comment on these sort of things, but even she could pick up on the vibe that this mansion, once just a house (a very large and impressive one), was now a home.

_'It's probably got something to do with the fact that this place went from being a cover for a secret underground lair for a diabolical genius bent on genocide to a nest for two young fools ridiculously in love if the papers got it right__.'_

"Asami and the Avatar? Oh! They're playing in the garden. I'll show you to them." Grandma Yin smiled at her guest and lead Lin towards the back of the house.

_'What the hell does she mean by 'playing'?' _Lin looked at the back of the elderly woman's white head with a raised eyebrow even as she followed Yin through the house and into the garden in the back. _'Oh god, do I really want to go back there?'_

"Might you know of my grandson, Mako, Chief Beifong?" Grandma Yin went on to say, smiling proudly. "He works for the police too."

"I do. He's one of my finest detectives." Lin nodded back to the elderly woman, suddenly understanding why she seemed so familiar. "You should be very proud."

"Oh, I am, I am." Grandma Yin's smile stretched clearly across her face. "Tell me, do you know if there are any nice young women on the force that might be interested in him? He's a very good boy if I have to say so myself, and he's make a very fine husband for some lucky girl!"

Lin stared at Yin blankly before she gave a bark of laughter that would have sounded very harsh coming out of anyone else's mouth but was a perfectly pleasant sound from Lin. "I'll be sure to let every eligible woman on the force know." She said. _'And everyone else for that matter too.'_

Lin's dry sarcasm went right over Yin's head and the grandmother clapped her hands in delight. "Oh, thank you so much, Chief Beifong! He'll be so pleased. I'll be sure to let Mako know you said you'd do that."

"Oh please _do_." Lin continued to smirk.

They approached the gardens and Lin could hear the clearly unmistakable sound of physical exertions - grunts and cries and draws of breath and for a moment, Lin wondered if she really _was_ going to walk right in on Korra and Asami in a compromising position, but then she rounded the corner and almost gave a sigh of relief when she realized that the two young women were just sparring.

_'Oh thank god. Stupid stories in the papers had me thinking they were hornier than a couple of bull cabbits during mating season.'_

Korra was in her regular clothing while Asami had donned training gear. The Avatar was currently wearing protective padding on her forearms and raising them up for the other woman to strike, which she did with careful precision and flawless technique that even Lin's critically trained eyes could appreciate.

Korra saw their visitor first and her face lit up, prompting Asami to turn around.

"Lin!" Korra waved, as they met the Police Chief and Grandma Yin by the patio set that already had some refreshments laid out on the table. "You came!"

"Well I'll leave you be for now," Grandma Yin said as she excused herself.

Korra and Asami wiped off the sweat they'd raised from their workout before they sat down at the table on the stone walkway with their guest. Lin gave Korra a smirk. "I heard from Tenzin that you two had moved in together. Did you finally get sick of the air-nomad vow of poverty and decide to actually enjoy the lifestyle of the rich and famous?"

Korra laughed a bit sheepishly. "I'm not gonna lie, I don't miss those rock hard beds _at all_."

"Yeah, I'll bet." Lin cast her eyes onto Asami's own with a hint of amusement in them, and the younger woman simply smiled back, meeting Lin's eyes easily. Lin hadn't had much opportunity to interact one-on-one with the CEO of Future Industries, but she liked Asami; Her head was screwed on straight. "Alright, can we cut the crap already and get down to why the two of you have really asked me to come here? Because we all know I'm not exactly at the top of anyone's guest list when it comes to social visits."

Korra would have winced if she wasn't so used to Lin's abrasive attitude already. She gave a look at Asami who simply smiled back a bit unsurely and Lin did not miss the silent but still rather sickeningly sweet message of support being passed between the two love birds. She fought down the urge to roll her eyes. _'Ugh. I think I'm gonna hurl.'_

* * *

><p>"Thanks for coming, Lin," Korra began. "You're right, Asami and I were hoping you might be able to help us out with something."<p>

And then Korra related a highly edited version of what had happened in the spirit world to the older woman, who, to her credit, remained completely unfazed and simply listened without interrupting. After Korra finished, she couldn't help but feel a little anxious as Lin remained silent, simply crossing her arms across her chest and letting her lips turn further down from a frown into an outright scowl.

Korra sighed. "You don't believe us, do you?" _'Are we going to go on 5 for 5? Or, well, Asami said Bolin believed her right off the bat, so maybe it's closer to 5 for 6...'_

But much to Korra's surprise, the police chief simply raised an eyebrow and released her scowl. "What's that? No, of course I believe you. I just can't believe Tenzin hasn't given me that 50 yuan from our bet yet, that thieving son of a gun. And here I thought airbending masters were supposed to have integrity. Che."

Considering that she knew Korra had been her airmaster's father in her past life, Korra got the impression that Lin might have just lobbed an intended jab at her, but she was far too happy to not have to further explain herself that she decided to let it slide. She looked over at her girlfriend's face and saw that Asami's expression had also brightened. "You mean you _do_ believe us?"

Lin raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I? What reason would you have to lie to me?" She shrugged. "And besides, I've sweated out my share of confessions in the interrogation room over the years, and both your heart rates and breathing patterns have remained completely steady since I got here."

"Really? I didn't know you were a true-seer, Lin! That's great!" Korra couldn't help but feel excited. She looked at Asami and a silent message of glee passed between them. _'This is awesome! Lin's the earthbender we want!'_

"Well, I might not be as good as Mom is, but who can claim that?" Lin smirked. "So what? You want me to see if Asami's lying about whether you're really the _'father'_ or not?"

Korra almost fell off her chair while Asami's face turned bright red with affront, and she opened her mouth to shoot back a reply but Lin cut her off with a harsh bark of laughter. "Oh, come on. That was funny."

"Don't quit your day job, Chief." Asami shot back.

Lin snorted. " So what do you want from me?"

Korra gave Asami an apologetic smile while Asami simply sighed. "Well, after hearing what Kya said about that earthbender, we were wondering if you might be able to help us out. How about it, Lin? Do you think your seismic sense is good enough to detect the baby? If there is one?" It felt a little wrong to Korra to still have to make that qualification to her statement, but, well, that was the whole point of seeking Lin out in the first place, wasn't it?

The earthbender's frown deepened as she considered this test of her bending skill. "Hmm. Well, I've never tried to do something like this before, but I guess I could give it a shot."

Lin stood up abruptly and walked away a few steps and it wasn't until she gave the younger women a look that said, _'well? What are you waiting for?' _that Korra and Asami realized that the earthbender meant to try out her skills now.

"Oh! You can do it right now?" Korra was surprised. She had thought maybe Lin would have to take a little bit of time to figure out the technique, and hadn't expected to get an answer so soon.

Lin was slightly annoyed. "Well you want to know right away, don't you?"

"Uh. Yeah. Right." A bit startled, none the less, Korra and Asami followed Lin a little ways away from the table, but were careful to stay on the stone pathway and Korra stepped a little bit to the side to give Asami some space as Lin faced her from about 7 feet away.

Lin slid back the metal sole of her boot to reveal the bottom of her foot before closing her eyes in concentration and then slamming her foot down against the ground, stretching out with a sixth sense to feel the vibrations she sent through the ground towards where Asami was standing.

Lin stayed still for a very long time, and Korra couldn't help but feel herself grow anxious as Lin frowned.

"... that can't be right," Lin murmured as she looked at the young women curiously. "Let me try again."

Once more, Lin took a deep breath and then closed her eyes, this time, sliding the sole off of both boots and slamming both feet into the ground.

"..."

Then Lin stamped her foot against the ground several more times, frowning intently.

*stamp* *stamp* *stamp*

Asami and Korra traded anxious looks as Lin snorted indignantly, twisted one leg up to look at the bottom of one foot like something on it offended her. She picked out a piece of dirt that had gotten stuck between two toes before slamming her foot against the ground once more and maintaining the posture for a very long time.

"Well?" Asami finally asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. "What is it, Lin? Is there a baby?"

Lin released her position and slapped her boots back together, a strangely awed expression on her face as she put a hand on her hip and looked at Asami and Korra in appraisal. "Well, I can't say if it's a _baby_, but there's definitely something inside Asami's uterus that is roughly this size." Lin raised her hand and marked off the tip of her pinky with her thumb.

And as Lin said this, Korra felt something skip inside her own abdomen - a rush of excitement, a dash of giddiness, the flapping sensation of absolute and utter _joy_. Korra whirled around to look at Asami, a massive grin on her face and saw a very pleased smile stretch across her girlfriend's face too.

"Alright!" Korra cried, reaching out to pull Asami into a tight hug, going so far as to lift her off her feet as she spun her girlfriend around in a circle. "It's in your womb!"

Asami laughed. "Well where _else_ would it be?!"

"I don't know! I was just really worried that Botan might have really, _really_ screwed something else up!" Korra turned to give Lin a megawatt smile. "Thank you _so much _for confirming that for us, Lin! That was amazing!"

And it wasn't until then that they realized that the Police Chief was still looking at the both of them somewhat awkwardly. "Well if you think _that's_ amazing, I'm not sure how you're going to feel about this next part."

Korra blinked and felt a frown coming onto her face even as she set Asami back down on the ground. "Why? What's wrong?"

And then, all of a sudden, Korra felt a rushing sensation as though she were reliving flashbacks of her life and she was sitting in the Tree of Time again, staring at a certain wanna-be stork in absolute flabbergast as his words came back to her.

_'I hope you liked them! I picked them out myself!'_

Then she was back at the Administration of the Mortal Coil, whispering frantically with Asami and trying to figure out what they were going to do while Botan squawked tearfully in the background.

_'I know they'll like them! They'll love'em!'_

And something went *click* in Korra's mind as she went zooming back out of the memories in her head and back into the real world with a very disconcerting sense of vertigo as the blood drained from her face even as Asami seemed to come to the same conclusion at exactly the same time, her mouth dropping open into an 'o' of utter shock.

They spoke at the same time, voices high pitched and squeaky with disbelief.

"Is it _twins_?!"

Lin shook her head.

"Not exactly. You're _both_ pregnant."

"WHAT?!"

All three women blinked at each other stupidly before they realized that there weren't enough of them to give voice to the multi-throat exclamation, besides which, none of them had actually contributed to that incredulous cry.

Instead, as one, Korra, Asami and Lin all turned to look at the entrance to the garden, and a whole gaggle of their loved ones were standing there, utterly stupefied, having arrived on the scene just in time to get Lin's news; Grandma Yin was at the front of the group, holding a tray with many beverages in her hands and evidently having just led Tenzin, Pema, Mako, Bolin, Kya and all four air kids into the backyard for a visit. The entire air family (+ Mako, Bolin & Grandma Yin) just kind of stood there all wearing the exact same dropped jaw expression on their faces.

Then more than a dozen different voices all started to speak in complete and utter confusion and chaos.

"Tenzin! What are you doing here?"

"Kya was supposed to come back to confirm Asami's pregnancy today, and we wanted to see how Korra was doing! What are you doing here?"

"Mako? Bolin? What about you guys?"

"We were visiting Grandma!"

"Pregnant?! _Both_ of you?! How in the-?! What?! _WHAT_?!"

"Mako! Oh, you naughty boy you! You really do take after your grandfather! Oh! The shame!"

"WHAT?! G-Grandma, what are you even _saying_?!"

"Aunt Kya? I'm confused. Mom said two girls couldn't make babies together."

"Well, um, Sweetie, I guess, sometimes when a girl and girl really, really, _really_ love each other, they can find creative solutions by simply thinking outside the terribly limited and old-fashioned two-person box that society incorrectly perceives to be the only appropriate way to consummate a-"

"Aaah! Kya! Please don't give my children any strange ideas!"

"What are you guys even talking about? Babies get delivered by storks."

"What?! Babies get delivered by _storks_? But there weren't any around when Rohan was born!"

In the midst of all the confusion, that single word managed to jump to the front of Korra's perception.

"Stork! _Storks!_" Korra cried. And then she balled her hands into fists and shouted up to the heavens. "BOTAN! Get out here! I know you've still been following Asami and I around!"

Korra's very loud bellow grabbed everyone else's attention and they all shut up to stare at her like she'd completely lost her mind.

Nobody expected it at all when a small white cloud poofed into existence just beside the agitated Avatar, and a white long-necked bird squawked noisily as he came careening out of the cloud to smack into Korra's face.

Korra gave a roar of fury through the flying feathers even as she wrestled the spirit out of her face and managed to close her hands around Botan's neck, shaking him.

"Man! That first step!" The bird shook his head to clear away the stars before he noticed Korra.

"Oh! Hi Avatar!" Botan swallowed nervously, not liking the dark expression Korra was wearing one bit. "Um! Lovely day in the material world, isn't it? Y-Your weather patterns are so fascinating! It's very strange how the climate and precipitation here is not controlled by your mood and emotions, but rather the other way around, yes? Yes, um, haha! A very strange way to do it! Very strange! But it does have its charms! Yes! S-So, um, please Avatar, might you consider taking the lovely day into consideration before you summon me with such a scary look of unholy fury on your faaaaCCLEEEGGH!"

"What have you _DONE_?!" Korra cried hysterically, cutting off Botan's rambling as she throttled the spirit back and forth by his neck. "You stupid, _stupid_ bird!"

In the end, it took almost everyone present to pry Korra off of Botan before she killed him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** ^_^ Quite a few of you picked up on the plural pronouns, and a few of you even knew where I wanted to go with this before I did! Lol! *thumbs up!*


	17. Siblings!

"Lin got it right," Kya murmured, an amazed expression on her face as she moved her flow of water away from Korra's lower abdomen and bent it back into her water skin. "You really _are_ both pregnant, about three weeks along, both of you."

The Police Chief smirked at her childhood friend and crossed her arms over her chest. "Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Kya. Did you really doubt my seismic sense that much?"

"Well you've never exactly been a detail-oriented kinda bender, Lin. I always thought rip-the-roof-off-the-top-of-the-getaway-vehicle-with-metal-cables was more your skill set." Kya laughed. "But in all seriousness, good job! All these years, and maybe you should've become a doctor instead of a cop?"

"I'm sure my patients would have really enjoyed my bedside manner."

The two older women in the room shared a laugh while the two younger women they had been examining looked at each other, shell-shocked. Or rather, Asami was looking at Korra as she buttoned her top back up, unable to keep the worry from her face. Korra, for her part, continued to just stand there, holding the bottom of her shirt up to just under her breasts, exposing her well-defined abdomen. She didn't move for a long time, and when she finally did, it was to dumbly pull her shirt back down over her stomach and then sit heavily down in the chair behind her, blinking silently with a stupefied expression on her face.

_'That's... that's not a good sign.'_ Korra had fainted when she had learned she was going to be the "father" of the child in Asami's womb; this reaction was far more worrisome. Asami crouched down beside her girlfriend and gently took her hands. "Korra? Talk to me. How are you doing?"

"Buuuuh..." That dumbstruck expression didn't leave Korra's face, even as she blinked. "I... uh... I'm not sure." She blinked a few more times silently before slowly turning her confused sky-blue eyes onto Asami's bright-green own. Asami could only give her girlfriend a weak smile as she completely understood and empathized with the emotions that were whirling inside Korra's heart; she'd experienced them first hand herself just a couple weeks ago herself after all - and still did. Even though the child inside her own womb was as much Korra's as it was Asami's, Asami could completely understand just how the knowledge that _you_ were the one carrying the child - that there was something, some_one_ _inside_ you - could make the news of impending parenthood feel remarkably different.

There was, to put it bluntly, a lot more fear.

_A lot._

Asami remained silent as she watched Korra process the situation through her mind a few more times. She could tell her girlfriend was having a very hard time keeping all her thoughts straight as her face kept contorting through wildly different emotions, and she opened and closed her mouth a few times without really being able to spit any words out.

It was Lin who ultimately snapped Korra out of it as she asked with not a small amount of sarcasm in her voice, "so how'd you manage to miss your own pregnancy, Avatar? Aren't you supposed to be all about balance and cycles and being in-touch with your inner self?"

The jab finally made it through Korra's semi-catatonic state and she shot the older woman an unimpressed glare (Asami felt ironically grateful for the older woman's less-than-completely-kind words). "Should a woman in the grip of constant non-stop PMS really be making fun of another woman's menstrual cycle, Lin?"

Lin's eyes narrowed while Kya simply laughed. "Zing!" When the famously abrasive woman turned her glare onto the waterbender, she simply shrugged and said, "oh come on, Lin. That was an obvious one. And everyone knows you've gone through menopause already anyway."

If looks could kill, the world would have been down one master healer.

"But in all honestly," Korra suddenly turned her eyes back onto Asami and her eyebrows crinkled. "You gotta believe me, Asami. I had _no idea_! I mean, my cycle's not really all that regular, and with all the excitement over the last few days, I guess I just forgot about it..."

"You don't have to apologize for anything, Korra. I mean, really? Who in their right mind would have seen _this_ coming?" Asami gave her girlfriend a supportive smile and a squeeze of the hand. "... are you... are you okay? Are you ready to go back to talk to Botan? Without killing him, I mean?"

Korra took a deep breath before sighing and rubbing her face tiredly. "Yeah. I really don't know if I can promise that, but we should talk to him before he disappears."

They all left the room and made their way down the hall to go back to the larger sitting room where everyone had gathered to wait for the results of Kya's examination.

It was probably a good thing they had arrived back when they did, because it appeared that the crane-spirit was in the process of scarring the airkids for life; all four of them, along with Mako and Bolin, had gathered on the floor around Botan, who was roosting on a coffee table with his long legs tucked underneath him and his wings folded politely against his body, the black band of the shinigami spirit showing around his left wing. Tenzin and Pema were seated in arm chairs just a little ways behind the younger people, with utterly perturbed expressions on their faces.

"... so I just put it under a cabbage leaf for safe keeping and wouldn't you know it, there was a slight downhill slope and it just rolled away from me and fell right into the pond and got snapped up by a hungry hyena koi! Man, what I had to do to convince that cold fish to regurgitated the poor little guy up! Thank Raava that immortal souls are just that, otherwise, I'm not sure where I'd have to go to get another soul to complete the delivery! Well, I guess I could have probably fished some poor sod out of the Fog of Lost Souls, but then I'd have to get some Five Flavoured Tea of Forgetfulness out of old Meng Po and I owe her enough favors already."

"That's so coooool!" Meelo whispered reverently, fists squeezed tight in excitement. "Hey, do you have a soul on you right now? Can I have a baby? I want to train an army of them! Like lemurs!"

"Actually, I think I might." Botan opened his side satchel and rummaged around. "I was on my way from that old folks' home back to the Administration when the Avatar called and I don't think I... oh, wait? Where'd he go? He should be here somewhere..." The shinigami bird scratched his head and then looked all around himself in puzzlement. "Has anyone seen a human soul around here? It kinda looks like a grumpy old guy with a long white beard squished into a little globe of light?"

Pema turned to give her husband a very concerned look. "Darling, if this spirit is supposed to play any part in the cycle of death and rebirth, then I might be starting to develop some very grave concerns about the whole point of living my life as an air acolyte searching for the pinnacle of spiritual enlightenment."

For his part, Tenzin could not refute his wife's concerns and could only pinch the bridge of his nose like he had a very bad headache.

At that moment, Korra, Asami, Kya and Lin entered into the room, and everyone looked up at them. Ikki, Meelo and Rohan all jumped up and raced over to them.

"Korra!" Melo cried. "Botan was telling us the story of how he got the souls for your babies to you! Your kid is going to be so cool! He survived getting chewed apart by a hyena koi!"

Korra's eyebrow twitched spastically.

Ikki looked at her aunt excitedly. "So are Korra and Asami really gonna have babies at the same time, huh huh huh?"

It wasn't really the master healer's place to announce that news so she didn't say anything to her niece, although she did give her a knowing wink.

Everyone looked at Korra and Asami and Asami found herself trading a long suffering look with Korra before sighing as Korra confirmed the news to everyone. _'So much for keeping this a secret...'_

"Uh, yeah. It looks like we are..."

Moving past the kids, Korra went straight up to Botan who gave a squawk of alarm and tried to hide behind Jinora, trembling fearfully.

Korra's face twisted into a scowl that would have done Lin proud. "Alright, listen up you crazy crane!" She said to the spirit, looming fearsomely over him. "Why did you deliver to _both_ of us?! This entire time, you let Asami and I think that only she was carrying! What gives?!"

The bird spirit swallowed nervously. "Um, well, you see, normally, answering a stork summons is pretty straightforward and hard to mess up, but your summons was, uh, missing some key information so I kinda had to improvise on the fly and like I said, you guys were just summoning for _so long_ and _so hard_ that I was pretty sure you guys must've wanted more than one baby and then I couldn't really make up my mind at the queue for which one you'd like more so I figured, what the hey, you're both equipped to carry..."

Everyone in the room stared at the spirit like he was the stupidest creature to ever require remedial lessons in biology.

Ikki, Meelo and Rohan all looked at their parents in confusion. "Mom? What does that mean, _'stork summons'_?"

And while Tenzin and Pema flustered about for a bit, Kya couldn't help but snort before hiding her smile behind her hand as her eyes twinkled in complete amusement at Korra and Asami. "... so long and so hard, huh? Nice job, girls."

Both Korra and Asami turned bright red before getting over their embarrassment.

"But why didn't you say something earlier, Botan?" Asami exasperated. "In front of _King Enma_?" She gave her girlfriend a significant look out of the corner of her eyes and saw Korra's eyes widened in understanding as to the thrust of the question.

King Enma had said that the soul in Asami's womb could be returned to the front of the queue with little consequence within eight weeks, but no one had said anything about the one in _Korra's._ It made Asami uncomfortable to bring it up, it really did, but Asami had made a choice with Korra's full support when they'd first discovered her pregnancy, and she couldn't help but feel like it was important that Korra understand the exact circumstances surrounding the choice she had to make too.

_'And, of course,'_ Asami thought to herself, pushing back the uncomfortable squeezing sensation in her chest. _'Whatever it is Korra decides, I'll support her too. No matter what it is that *I* might want...'_

Botan poked his index feathers together sheepishly again. "Oh, um, yeah, about that... I'm... I'm very sorry for not saying anything earlier, but I wasn't about to string myself up by own tail feathers! I already got a 75 year suspension for the first unauthorized soul! I didn't want to _double_ it! Oh! Are you going to tell King Enma? Please don't, Avatar! Please? Have mercy! I'm already screwing up all over the place with the ravens too! I'm way behind my quota for getting souls back to the Administration for processing and if Bob finds out about this, I don't know if he'll ever give me my license back-!"

"He never should've given you a license in the first place you stupid crazy crane!" A giant vein so big it almost gave Korra an aneurysm throbbed at her temple and Asami could tell that her girlfriend was highly considering just lunging over Jinora to wring the wanna-be stork's neck again.

Asami gave Korra's hand a squeeze and was able to stop her girlfriend before an angry red haze could take over and instead Korra counted to ten and took a deep breath and was able to stop herself from committing murder.

Eventually, Korra was able to calm down enough to speak. "We're... we're not going to tell King Enma, Botan. What's done is done and there's not much we can really do about that now. But we do have a few more questions for you, and if you don't answer them to our satisfaction then maybe we _will_ have to let King Enma know. Am I making myself clear?"

The bird-spirit nodded his head rigorously and Jinora wisely side-stepped out from in front of him, knowing better than to stand between Korra and whoever she was giving that I'm The Avatar Do Not Fuck With Me look to. Then Korra turned that look onto everyone else in the room, and everyone suddenly coughed and made various excuses to leave the room, leaving Korra and Asami alone with the spirit.

"Alright Botan, answer truthfully." Korra kneeled down in front of the bird and looked him square in the eyes. "Do you remember the deal that King Enma gave us? That we have up to eight weeks time to... to send the soul you delivered to Asami back to the front of the queue? Does the same offer extend to me?"

Botan looked guiltily away. "N-no. The paperwork Bob's done up at the Administration is only for the one soul, because he doesn't know about the other one. Bob's been pressuring me lately to come back to you to confirm that you guys really are planning to keep it and to remind you that there's only five weeks left now to change your minds. I-If Bob knew about the second one, then he'd be on me to remind you about that one too..."

Asami watched Korra's face intently even as her girlfriend continued to bore her eyes into the spirit's.

Asami couldn't help but feel her heart squeeze terribly as she watched her girlfriend wrestle with her own.

Finally, Korra sighed and got up from her knees, putting her hands on her hips, closing her eyes and shaking her head in exasperation. But when she turned around to look Asami in the eyes, Asami could see something... something smiling in the depths of Korra's sky blue eyes, and when her girlfriend's mouth twisted into that familiar crooked grin, Asami knew that everything was going to be alright.

"Well whaddaya know." Korra sighed, shrugging helplessly. "Looks like that honest-to-goodness miracle we thought would never happen for us again... did."

Asami blinked, and then felt a small hopeful smile come onto her own face. "So...?"

Korra walked over to Asami and pulled her into an embrace, kissing her comfortingly and then resting their foreheads together. She gently placed her hand on Asami's lower abdomen, even as she looked down at her own. "Looks like you guys are going to be siblings. I sure hope you two get along."

"Oh, I'm sure they will!" Botan squawked helpfully in the background. "They got along super well in their last lifetime after all! After they stopped trying to kill each other, I mean..."

Korra and Asami turned as one to stare at Botan in absolute horror.

The bird-spirit paused. "Oh, uh, spoiler alert? Ahaha... ha... um... *cough* I'll let myself out."

And the bird spirit wisely chose that moment to run for his life.


	18. Not Cesty at All!

"Korra?"

"Hmm?"

"Did you ever have any romantic feelings towards Katara?"

Somehow, Korra managed to avoid falling out of the bed (again) in surprise, though it was a close call. Instead, she managed to roll over from her side to her back, and looked up at her girlfriend, who had, up until that point, been spooning her in warm, post-coital bliss.

Asami shuffled backwards to give Korra a little more space in the narrow bed before manoeuvring herself from her side onto her front, and propped herself up on her elbows so that they could see each other's faces more easily. She couldn't keep the small smile of amusement from her face as she took in the look of horror on Korra's.

Asami knew she was being silly, but she just couldn't help herself.

Korra gave a soft cough of laughter. "Y-you're joking, right? Asami, Katara's, like, 89 years old. She's known me since I was a baby - she probably helped my mom change my diapers at some point!"

"I know that," Asami looked away sheepishly, feeling a bit embarrassed for even feeling the need to bring this up at all. "But I mean, in your past life, she _was_ your wife, you know. Mother of your children? The love of your life?"

Korra reached up and gently turned Asami's face back so that she could look at her, and Asami found herself falling into Korra's marvellous sky-blue eyes. Korra remained silent for a little while, quietly looking up at Asami's face in ponder, soothing a piece of hair back behind an ear before cupping her cheek again and running her thumb along Asami's lips. Asami could almost see her own reflection in Korra's eyes, crinkled at the corners with fondness. "Yeah, maybe in Aang's life, but in mine, Katara is my mentor and my waterbending master. She's very important to me, and I love her like I'd love a grandmother, but _you're_ the love of my life."

"Flatterer." Asami smiled and leaned down to reward Korra with a long and lingering kiss for that answer. It felt nice to just partake of her girlfriend's warmth for just a little while and she heard Korra sigh with contentment, but that niggling session in the back of her mind just wouldn't stop, eventually causing Asami to pull away from her lover. She flipped herself around and snuggled her back up against Korra's chest, reversing their earlier spooning position.

And if Asami were to be perfectly honest to herself, she did this largely because she didn't want her girlfriend to be able to look into her eyes; Korra was becoming increasingly skilled at divining the depths of her heart through there (starting to know Asami maybe even better than Asami knew herself), and while the sweetness in Korra's answer had made Asami feel mostly warm and fuzzy and gooey on the inside, in some ways, her girlfriend's answer had also confirmed a suspicion that also made her feel slightly melancholic.

But Korra didn't fall for Asami's tactic and even as she stretched one arm out to act as Asami's pillow while throwing her other one over top of Asami waist and pulled her in close, Korra managed to hit the nail that was making Asami feel so pensive right on the head as she murmured into Asami's neck, "... is this about what Botan said? About the babies' past lives?"

Asami couldn't help but sigh. She didn't want to admit to it - it was such a silly, stupid thought - but Korra had caught her and she couldn't deny it without flat out lying. She nodded her head slightly. "Yeah. I… I can't help wondering who they might have been, you know? And if they're going to be bringing their, uh, issues with one another from that life into this one."

"That stupid bird!" Korra expelled a snort of breath almost violently from her nose. "I really wish he hadn't gone and said that. But he did and now we have to lie here and think about it." Korra sighed.

"Asami, listen to me. I honestly don't think we should be worrying about it at all. I mean, we are giving birth to our kids. _Our_ kids. New life. Clean slate. They were someone else in a prior life, just like everyone else in this world, but they are their own entirely new and entirely different selves. What business is it of ours, or really, of _anyone's,_ who they might have been in their past lives, or what they might have done? I mean, who on this planet goes around with issues from their past lives rearing their heads in their daily lives?"

Asami couldn't help but smile a little sardonically. "Besides you, oh great and mighty Avatar?"

Korra blinked. And then she laughed. "Alright, fine, you got me there, but I'll go out on a limb and say that I'm prooobably the lone exception to the rule, but even then, Asami, I'm _me_. I don't go around thinking that Katara is my wife or Tenzin is my son or anything like that. Aang was a completely different person from me. I even had a conversation with him once."

"I know, Korra." Asami smiled. "And I didn't fall in love with you because you're the Avatar, but because you're... well, _you_. You're an amazing, strong, brave, beautiful Southern Water Tribe girl with a huge heart who does so much, so, _so_ much _good_ in this world. And you'd do that even if you _weren't_ the Avatar. That's just who you are."

"And you call _me_ a flatterer?" Korra laughed. "Did you say hella ripped and sexy too? I think you might have missed hella ripped and sexy."

"And so humble and modest too." Asami chuckled. "But, I mean, besides you being _you_, you're also the Avatar. And growing up, I always thought that the Avatar was different from everyone else. I thought the Avatar got to be reincarnated and reborn again and again because of Raava and because you've got a very important job to do - maintaining the balance in this world. I never really thought that everyone else in the world got reborn and reincarnated too. I kinda thought that, well, this life was _it_, you know? There is nothing after this. And if you were to share this lifetime with me, like you shared your last lifetime with Katara, and will share your next lifetime with someone else, I thought that that would be wonderful. That I could be so lucky, that for my one life, I could be... I could be _yours_."

Korra remained silent, but from the slight increase in tension in her body, Asami could tell that her girlfriend was starting to understand what she was driving at. And it embarrassed Asami that she could be feeling this way - it was _so_ illogical and _so_ irrational - but her heart was feeling what it was feeling and she'd started talking already and couldn't rightly stop there.

"But now that I know that reincarnation actually _exists_, and that we _all_ come back." Asami sighed. "I know I'm being really stupid here, Korra, but when I was asking you about Katara, I was just... I was just trying to see if maybe it was possible that... that something of the bonds and love that we create and share with one another while we are alive in this world could survive even while we are _off_ of it. If you know what I mean?"

And after Asami finished explaining what she was feeling, she sighed again and tried to bury her face in a pillow. "Gawd, I'm sorry, Korra. That was... that was stupid. I feel like such a stupid love-sick school girl. Sorry! Are we far enough along that I can just blame all this on hormonal imbalance yet?"

"No, no, this isn't stupid. I... I get it. I do." Korra kissed Asami's shoulder before she tugged at it and Asami obliged her girlfriend, turning around so they could look at each other directly in one another's eyes once more. "Asami, the longer I live in it, and more I see of it, the more convinced I am that in this world and the next, our spirits are connected together by love. It doesn't really matter too much the type of love, but everyone you care for, everyone you love, you can reach out and feel. Toph once told me she could see Lin here in Republic City, and Suyin in Zaofu. Have you seen Jinora do it? Reach out through the spirit vines? It's through the love we have in our spirits that we can connect to each other, and our spirits are eternal - they go on after we die, so these bonds, this love we have for one another, _of course _they'll go on, of course. So even when we die and are reborn, there are going to be certain people we feel a certain affinity for, that we just click with, right out of the gate."

Korra gave Asami a kiss. "When I first met you, even though things were a little complicated with Mako, I think... I think I loved you right away, Asami. No, somewhere inside, I _know _I loved you right away. And I think that's why it took me so long to understand exactly what it was I was feeling for you because it was always there in some way, and for that to be the case," Korra's smile was shy, "I can't help but think that this can't be the first lifetime we've shared together. We might not have been lovers in our immediate past life, but I betcha were someone really important to me. Or maybe we were lovers the life before that? Does that make sense to you?"

And as Korra said this to her, Asami found her heart growing lighter, as though she were having an epiphany.

In her heart's mind, Asami pictured a soul as a glowing ball of light. That ball of light then stretched outwards on both ends until it became a spiralling strand. And along this strand of light there came another one, circling around the first, weaving around it, and at some points, intersecting with it. And then there was a third strand of light, and then another, and another...

_'__... all these spirits, all these souls, everyone you might have cared for or was important to you in all your lives, intertwined together, weaving together, meeting each other in life again and again across the ages, making each other strong, reinforcing one another...'_

"... oh." Something clicked inside Asami's head.

Korra blinked. "Hmm?"

And then Asami smiled. "Don't mind me. I think I might have just gotten an idea for speeding up the construction of the new civic centre building. If we melt the thinner steel beams recovered from the rubble into a weave and then embed that into the concrete, we might be able to shoulder the same load with less material required..."

Korra blinked again before a highly amused smile came onto her face. "Seriously? I'm talking about souls and spirits and love across the ages, and you've moved on to solving an engineering problem?"

"Well... aren't they kinda similar?"

And Korra laughed, uproariously so. "If you say so."

After the fit of laughter passed, Asami found herself feeling much better, and she snuggled up against Korra once more, a comfortable silence settling in between them, before Asami chuckled. "So... you don't find the fact that we could have had a parent-child relationship in a prior life creepy at all?"

Korra wrinkled her nose. "Well if you put it _that_ way."

They laughed again and decided to just not go there.

"I still feel a little sorry for Katara though," Asami couldn't help but say after a while. "I mean, it couldn't have been easy for her after Aang died and to meet you..."

Korra considered this for a moment before she finally sighed. "Would it make you feel better if I told you a really embarrassing story that you have to promise you'll never tell anyone else?"

Asami raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Uh, alright. Sure?"

Korra cringed. "When I was a kid, I really, _really_ liked Katara. Like, she was my favorite person and I'd cry when she'd have to leave after coming by for a visit. Apparently, this culminated into me trying to give Katara my mom's betrothal necklace when I was like, five years old or something."

Asami stared at her girlfriend and then burst out laughing. "Oh, Korra, that's so sweet! So you _did_ remember Aang's feelings for her!" She laughed.

"Shh!" Korra hissed frantically. "Not so loud, Asami, geez! And I really can't say if it was Aang or if it was just a stupid little kid's crush, okay? And don't you dare bring this up in front of Kya, because she was there and totally remembers this."

Asami couldn't quite completely stop her laughter, but she did quiet down some, pulling the blankets up to her face to muffle herself.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** My apologies - this one isn't really very funny, but hopefully folks will find it fluffy and heartwarming instead. And, um, as a heads up, I've got to take a couple days off from this fic to catch up on work stuff, so the next update might not be until late week. _ Sorry guys!

Also – A huge thank you and flowers and cupcakes and hearts and stuff for all of you who've been leaving reviews and favorites and follows! ^_^ I don't think I've ever had a story with this much interest before and I'm super-stoked! Please bear with me as I work through the backlog on the reviews, but I just wanted to say that it's really made me smile how many folks are guessing and commenting on baby genders and past lives and stuff, lol! It's giving me quite a bit more food for thought for where I had originally wanted to go with this! ;)


	19. Hurl!

"Oh... oh god...!"

Without warning, Korra found herself in free-fall as she fell off the bed once again, but this time, _this time, _it wasn't her own damn fault for rolling over when she shouldn't have. This time, Korra found herself slamming the back of her head against the floor because Asami had bodily pushed her off of her person where Korra had cuddled for the night with enough force to send the sleeping woman sprawling. Asami didn't even seem to noticed what she had done before she scrambled off of her side of the bed and fell to her knees weakly, her face turning a very distinct shade of pale green which could have actually looked really pretty if this color had been limited to her irises but was far more alarming when it colored the entirety of her face.

"Hurrrmph!" Asami frantically clamped a hand over her mouth as she wobbled weakly from the bed to the door, needing a few tries with the handle before she could open it and then stumbling outside.

"Uuugh... Asami? Wha-?" Korra groaned, crawling onto her knees even as she rubbed at the massive lump on the back of her head. But when she tried to use the bed to pull herself further upright, the entire room gleefully said _'heehee! Oh no you don't!'_ and started to spin with recklessly wild abandon, causing a wave of nausea to hit Korra square in the stomach and rush its way up through her esophagus. Korra found herself suddenly and desperately trying to lock her jaws together as her stomach tried its damndest to wage war against her intestines and eject all of its contents outwards in half-digested freedom.

_'Oh gawd! Stay down until I can get to a toilet! Stay down dammit! Stay-!' *hurkl*_

Cursing not for the first time that the nearest bathroom was so very damn far away (and probably being used by Asami if her hasty flight from the room earlier had been an indication), Korra clenched her fists and her teeth and her gut as tightly as she could and desperately fought against her body's natural instinct to eject the roiling illness inside her, even as her head continued to gleefully spin and a hot flash ripped through her body, beading her forehead with sweat. "Gggguuuugh...!" Korra feebly fell forward, lurching away from the bed in an attempt to find a bathroom or a bucket or _*something*_ and as a testament to just how much effort and power she was summoning to keep her stomach under wraps, her eyes started to flash wildly white as she practically went into the avatar state for more self control.

_'Aaaaaa I am not going to make it! I am *not* going to make it!'_

Despair threatened to overwhelm her but then her savior was found as Korra's eyes darting wildly around the room found the small and unassuming blue plastic garbage can by Asami's vanity table. Grunting with effort with eyes continuing to wildly flash as the rest of her body tried to figure out if the signals her stomach was sending out really constituted the kinda emergency that really required the use of the avatar state (or if it was just being a drama queen again), Korra feebly crawled over to the can. She just barely managing to grab its edge before a mighty heave violently convulsed through her and upended the contents of her stomach into the poor, poor garbage receptacle which had, up until that point in its life, provided years of loyal and unassuming service for Asami without complaint or entitlement, but had really only ever had to contain cotton balls and tissue paper and maybe the odd piece of litter.

Alas for the poor garbage can, the Avatar (flickering in and out of the Avatar State) did not experience morning sickness quite like the average pregnant woman did, and it wasn't just sick that upchucked its way into the plastic receptacle, but a massive gout of flame as well. Barf, the garbage can could handle with ease. Violent, flaming death so intense it more or less evaporated the sick and burnt its solids to ash before it even hit the bottom of the can was another matter entirely and Korra ended up incinerating most of the garbage can (and part of the floor and wall around it too) into nothing.

Korra blinked blurrily through the remains of the garbage can (just its rim really) at the slightly burning carpet like she couldn't quite comprehend what had happened before a second wave of nausea hit her and her eyes bulged even as she clamped a hand over her mouth to contain it. The second wave eventually passed and the flames lazily crept along the carpet and it took a while before Korra could swallow back the disgusting bile in her throat and then concentrate on bending the water from her cup on the nightstand that had magically not been knocked over during the morning's incredulous beginnings and sent the liquid over to smother out the rest of the flames.

Morning sickness. Asami had gotten it early, at around the fifth week, while Korra herself had lucked out with barely any symptoms at all until just a couple days ago. They were now approaching week 7, and Korra was sorely contemplating calling for Botan so she could kill the stupid bird spirit for real this time.

"Uuuuugh!" Eyes rolling into the back of her head, Korra shut them and slumped backwards onto the floor spread eagle as she groaned weakly. A few more spasms wracked her body but they weren't nearly as strong as the earlier ones and she was able to more or less let the sickness pass without too much further incident as she laid there and tried to get the jackass of a bedroom to just stop spinning already.

Eventually, it did, and a couple moments after that, Asami came back into the bedroom, her face ashen and slick with sweat, moving weakly and still clearly suffering from nausea while Grandma Yin supported her arm. The elder was wearing a half concerned and half amused expression on her wrinkled face that only served to wrinkle it further and she came into the room saying, "... happens to the best of us, Dearie. But they do say that the more terrible the morning sickness, the higher the chances of the baby being a bender, and between San and Chow, well, that old saying did turn out to be true for me."

"Oh, um, that's good to know ..." The expression on Asami's face suggested that she really didn't believe the elderly woman at all but wasn't going to call her out on it.

Behind the two women was Yang the butler, holding a tray with several cups and bowls on it and a very perturbed expression on his face as he took in the sight of Korra laying on her back in the middle of the floor holding the plastic rim of what used to be a garbage can in one hand beside a massive scorch mark that had blackened three feet of carpet and singed partway up the wall.

"Korra! Are you alright?" Asami's eyebrows crinkled in worry when she saw her lover on the floor and she let go of Grandma Yin's arm to hurry those last few steps to her, falling to her side and gingerly helping Korra to sit up. But evidently her own morning sickness was not entirely over and a wave of dizziness chose then and there to assault her and Asami almost threw up all down the front of Korra's tank top (the only thing stopping her being the fact that she had nothing left inside her system to heave.)

"Eeeeeeeaaaaah..." Korra groaned intelligibly, making a face as the retching sound Asami was making against her chest threatened to make her sick all over again too, but luckily, ultimately didn't. (Asami getting sick all over Korra's front was one thing; it probably would have been really, really bad if Korra reciprocated all over Asami's hair.)

Both women ended up sitting on the floor with their legs stretched out in front of them, slumped back against the bed, Asami resting her head on Korra's shoulder, both of them glassy eyed and looking very much like the just wanted the world to stop please kthxbye.

"How long is this supposed to last again?" Korra groaned as she accepted a glass of water from Yang. She wrinkled her nose a little as she notice bits and pieces of... something... floating in the water. "And what is this?"

"Ginger root with lemon and fennel seeds. A time honored earth kingdom remedy if ever there was one." Grandma Yin confirmed. "And I'm afraid the both of you have got at least another 4 weeks of this. Unless you're one of those unlucky ones that experience morning sickness throughout the _entire_ pregnancy."

Yang eyed the fire damage done to the room and winced. "Well. Let us pray that _that_ doesn't turn out to be the case... "

Asami eyed the melted plastic remains of the garbage can Korra was still holding onto, and the damage done to the part of the room unfortunately enough to be caught in the line of fire. "What happened?"

Korra made a face. "The room and I might have had a bit of a disagreement as to which way was up," She cracked a weak smile, "and I might have had to show it who was boss."

Asami blinked and then couldn't help but laugh weakly, shaking her head.

"Um... Miss Asami," Yang said unsurely. "Do you think it might be prudent if you and Miss Korra moved to a room with, um, easier access to the proper facilities? Perhaps even an ensuite?"

Asami blinked slowly a few times before a frown came onto her face. Korra noticed the expression and couldn't help but wonder why the butler's sensible suggestion could inspire such negativity in her girlfriend. "Asami?" Her girlfriend looked over at her and seeing the earnest expression on Korra's face, Asami's expression softened and she ended up sighing, her shoulder sagging a little, almost in defeat.

"Alright Yang. We can do that, I guess. It's... it's probably about time."

"Very good." The butler nodded. "We can get it done before you and Miss Korra return home today. Madam Yin, if you wouldn't mind taking care of the young Miss for now? I will go contact the movers."

Grandma Yin blinked a little confusedly though she took the tray from Yang and let the butler go.

Korra looked at Asami with equal confusion, glad that the nausea was finally starting to fade. Weird as the concoction in her hands tasted (and nothing remotely even close to what she'd heard from her mother of how women coped back in the Southern Water Tribe), it did indeed do a good job of calming down Korra's stomach, thank goodness. "So what's going on now? Why don't you seem like you're altogether convinced that this is a good idea?"

"The master bedroom is the only one with an ensuite bathroom."

"Oh." And Korra suddenly understood her girlfriend's apprehension. "Your parent's room?" She had learned a little while back that Asami had not ventured inside that room even once in the three years while her Father had been in prison, and had only entered it once since Hiroshi had died, in order to retrieve a couple of personal effects for his funeral. He had been buried with a framed picture of his wife, Yasuko. "Are you sure you're ready for that? We really don't have to, Asami..."

Asami shook her head and laughed a little weakly. "Korra, if you fall out of this bed any more, the baby's going to turn out lopsided. And I also don't know if the furniture could take any more of your, uh, nausea induced... exertions."

"Hey! You _pushed_ me this time!"


	20. Masters of Sato Estate

"Miss Sato?" Came the worried voice from the other side of the bathroom stall accompanied by a hesitant knock. "Are you sure you're doing alright in there?"

Asami took a deep breath and wiped the spittle from her mouth. _'Why do they even call this 'morning sickness' when it happens. All. Flipping. Day. Long?'_ She flushed the toilet, put on a brave face and opened the door, offering the young woman standing on the other side she recognized to be one of the junior draftsmen Future Industries had recently hired a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, Koko."

The young woman (who was actually probably older than Asami herself was by a year or two) was a bit flustered that the CEO of the massive company could know who she was and she tittered a little bit, not quite sure what to do. "Oh, um, alright. If you... if you say so." She gave Asami a look that clearly said she didn't believe her boss as Asami went to the sink to wash her hands, gargle her mouth and splash some water onto her face, even going so far as to grab some paper towels and hand them to Asami when she blindly groped for them.

"Thanks." Asami gave the non-descript woman a teasing smile as she accepted the towels. "But I could have sworn I hired you to be a draftsmen rather than a bathroom attendant."

Koko's face reddened. "Aaah, sorry Miss Sato! I didn't mean to pry or anything. Your secretary, Mr Fung, asked me to come in to check up on you. He was worried when you rushed out of your office but he couldn't rightly come into the ladies room after you."

"Ah." Asami sighed. Her executive assistant was a very good man, but a bit of a worry wart. He was the only person at Future Industries that Asami had told about the pregnancy and between him here and Yang and Grandma Yin at home, sometimes, Asami found herself feeling a little bit overwhelmed by all the fuss that was being piled onto her. _'And it's still just the first trimester! What are they going to be like when I'm the size of a whale?'_

(And she hadn't even started on Korra yet! Asami would have figured that being just as pregnant as Asami herself was that her girlfriend would know where to draw the line between 'helpful' and 'overbearing' but somehow that line had proven to be a very blurry and moving target. Having said this however, Asami could not say that she wasn't acting the _exact_ same way to Korra herself and on a couple of occasions, they had both said some things in irritation that they had both regretted afterwards. Luckily, they were both able to recognize the moodiness for exactly what it was - hormonal imbalance - and at the end of each day, they still managed to go to bed snuggled up in the other's arms, although some days... well, some days Asami was very glad that they were so busy they didn't see each other at all between dawn and dusk.)

Still, having said this, Asami made the conscious effort to remind herself that the irritation was just hormonal, and not how she really felt about the situation; she knew deep down that Fung and Grandma Yin and everyone else were actually going out of their way for her because they really did care for her and that knowledge made her feel very fond and happy – enough for her to sooth back the hormones. Now if only she could do the same thing for the nausea!

"Um, Miss Sato, forgive me for speaking out of turn," Koko murmured worriedly, "but my desk is very close to this bathroom and, um, I couldn't help but notice that there seems to be a very obvious pattern the last couple of weeks, and I would think that if your kitchen staff at home was giving you food poisoning this consistently, you would have let the entire team go by now, so, um... forgive me, but, um, might you be... with child?"

Asami remained silent and simply looked in the mirror at her employee, not quite sure what to say to her. The way Koko was fidgeting made it clear that they both knew that this was not an appropriate question to be asking your boss (much less a very recently hired entry-level worker to the company's CEO – even if that CEO was famed for being very down to earth and easy to talk to), but on the other hand, Asami could not fault a bright and inquisitive mind for making observations, coming to a hypothesis and then asking the question – at least it wasn't like she'd just read about it in the tabloids.

"I am." Turning around, Asami looked her employee in the eye and gave her a small smile.

Koko's eyes widened like she couldn't believe the head of the company had just out and confirmed this piece of news to her with no hedging or other hum-hah-ing; just the truth, simple and straight up. "Oh! Um! In that case, con... congratulations!" She gave Asami an awkward smile like she wasn't quite sure what to do with the news – like she couldn't even believe that she'd gotten the news. And then she blinked and said, "um... peppermint should help with the nausea. I... I had a rough time too with my first pregnancy and that's what really helped me out."

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. Actually, if you wouldn't mind telling Fung about that, that would help me out."

"Of course!" With the conversation thus concluded, the junior draftsmen gave a quick bow of respect to her boss and left the lavatory while Asami fought down another bought of nausea.

When she finally felt strong enough to leave the bathroom, Asami saw her executive assistant still waiting outside for her outside the bathrooms. Asami and Fung had worked together for long enough to understand each other wordlessly and they didn't say anything to each other; Fung simply followed Asami back to her office and then closed the door behind them, waiting until Asami had sat down behind her desk before he approached her and produced a package of peppermint candies.

Asami gave Fung a grateful smile and rummaged for a piece, popping it into her mouth and then idly playing with the wrapping paper.

"I take it Koko is good at keeping secrets since she's the one you sent after me?" Asami asked.

"Yes. She's got a good head on her shoulders and won't say anything. But having said this though, I don't think you'll be able to keep this a secret from the rest of the company for very much longer. It might be in yours – and Future Industries – best interest if you would consider making a formal announcement to the staff. I have received a great number of inquiries to your health, from all different levels. Everyone is worried, and its distracting them."

Asami crinkled her nose. "Is that really necessary? This is a personal matter, not a work related one." But even though she said this, Asami understood the sense in her assistant's words; while whatever nasty side-effects she was experiencing during her pregnancy was a personal matter, Asami realized it was definitely starting to become a work matter too when she was running out of seemingly every other meeting for the bathrooms. The last one had been particularly bad, as it had been in the middle of the weekly operational update with all the Future Industries plant managers when the nausea had assaulted her.

"No, you're right, Fung. I get it. The staff need to know what's going on at the top. I'll talk to Korra about it and we can make an announcement sometime over the next couple of days."

"Very good. I'll get a morning assembly organized at head office. We can send the memorandums out to the crews and the yards after that. But... if you don't mind me saying, you should probably be taking the rest of the day off."

"Thanks, Fung, I'll probably end up doing that. But hold off on the morning assembly. There's a few folks Korra and I need to talk to first before we let the whole world know."

* * *

><p>Despite living with Asami for several weeks now, Korra had never actually been into the master bedroom before and it was with a strange sense of detached awe that she watched the virtual army of moving people tear the room apart and put it back together. The room was massive – bigger than Asami's room by more than four or five times, and while it didn't look like very much at the moment in its current state of disarray, Korra could tell that the space had the potential to be jaw-dropping.<p>

She had already scoped out the ensuite bathroom that was the whole reason for them moving into the master bedroom in the first place and had had her mind blown by how fancy and massive and modern it was. Being a world leader herself (as well as the daughter of one) meant that Korra wasn't necessarily unaccustomed to luxury, and she'd seen some pretty fancy porcelain thrones at the old Earth Queen's palace in Ba Sing Se as well, but this place seemed almost decades ahead of its time.

For example, the tub, Yang had explained to her, had some sort of contraption build into it such that highly pressured jets of water would spray out at various spots to massage at sore muscles whilst the bather lounged in the tub. Korra had questioned the need for such a thing, since any amateur water bender could accomplish the same thing, but then she realized that Hiroshi Sato probably hadn't designed the thing with benders in mind and there also weren't any waterbenders on the Satos' serving staff and in any case, it was probably a little awkward to bath with someone else in the room hosing you down, even if that someone was your servant. (Though if Asami ever made use of these jet sprays rather than asking Korra for her assistance, Korra thought she might feel a little hurt).

While the bathroom itself didn't really need to be changed very much, the bedroom proper, did. Yang had done a diligent job of making sure the room was clean even if it was unused in the last few years, but everyone knew that it would be that much more difficult for Asami to move into her parent's bedroom if it felt too much like her parent's bedroom so they were cognizant that it was probably for the best to just redesign the room as best they could while tweaking some of the features to be similar to what Asami's current bedroom had, to make it more familiar and comfortable.

And while Yang seemed to know Asami's decorative tastes quite well, having served the family for longer than she'd been alive, he was less familiar with Korra's aesthetics and had asked if she would be willing to come home in the afternoon to give him some of her thoughts.

(As it was, Korra had been super easy going and might have frustrated the butler a little bit with her non-committal answers to everything. She had only had two very specific requests, and the rest didn't matter very much to her at all. One of the requests, Yang had nodded, agreeing that it would be a good idea. The other one he had balked at and Korra had had to spend a solid hour arguing with him about it.)

Korra stood at the doorway beside Yang who was directing all of this with an almost brutal sort of drill-sergeant command and efficiency and Korra couldn't help but be quite impressed with the man's attention to detail.

"Wow." Korra murmured, hands on her hips as she watched all the work going on. "I can't believe how much work's gotten done already!" She gave Yang a grin. "If we had you directing the work crews, Republic City's rebuild would be done already! How'd ya manage to get so many people here for this job? I thought every able-bodied tradesmen was already out there repairing the streets!"

"You'd be surprised how much respect the Sato name commands in the city, Miss Korra." Yang replied. "The young Miss has done so much for this city over the last several years that I daresay she has elevated the Sato name to be even higher than it had been at the height of Master Hiroshi's greatness. And it also helps that this job is quite a bit quicker and faster to accomplish than the rebuild of the city. I was not boasting when I told you and the young Miss that this room would be yours by the end of the day."

Korra gave Yang a curious look of appraisal. "... have you been preparing for Asami to move into this room for a while, Yang?"

The butler was silent for a while. And then he sighed and in that sigh, Korra could tell that the dark years, when Future Industries had almost gone bankrupted after Hiroshi's involvement with the Equalists had become public knowledge, had weighed heavily on the butler. He had been one of the few members of the household staff whom had remained unfailingly loyal to Asami during those terrible weeks, even when he didn't know whether or not his pay-cheque would bounce.

"Miss Korra, do you know how I came to the employment of the Sato family?"

"Actually, I can't say I do. Asami just told me you'd been working for the family since before she was born."

"This is true. I was an old classmate of Master Hiroshi's and as a boy, I loved architecture and design though I am embarrassed to say that I did not have the head to study it. I was the first member of the serving staff to be hired by the Sato Family by Master Hiroshi when Future Industries first came to success. I started just before this mansion was built and while Master Hiroshi was busy with the company, I assisted Lady Yasuko with its designed and construction and its furnishing. Taking care of this house and its masters is my life's greatest joy, and for the last several years, it has greatly saddened me that the heart of the house, its best feature and its most gloriously designed space, had fallen on such disuse. That such a magnificent space in this house was so ignored was a travesty to my sensibilities though I could also very much understand Miss Asami's reluctance to lay claim to it as the Master of Sato Estates."

Yang gave Korra a sly smile out of the corner of his eyes. "Although some of the steps seem a bit backwards to me, none the less, I am overjoyed that there will soon be a new generation of Satos to enjoy this magnificent property."

"A new generation of Satos?" Korra laughed as she folded her arms across her chest. "What if we decide to follow Water Tribe culture and eschew family names all together?"

"Of course, that is yours and Miss Asami's choice, and whatever the decision is, it is of little consequence to me," Yang replied evenly, though Korra kinda got the impression that he wasn't being altogether truthful with his actual personal thoughts; he just knew better than to say them out loud. "A new generation is a new generation. Which reminds me, do you think you and Miss Asami would prefer two individual cribs or a double one? And will you want to keep the children here with you, or would you like them in the nursery from the get go? Have you given any thoughts to the need for a wet nurse? I have lined up several applications who you may find suitable for-"

Korra gaped and put her hands up. "Woah! Cribs? Wet nurse? Do we really have to start thinking about these sorts of things already?"

Yang frowned in disapproval. "Of course. Time flies, Miss Korra. The babies will be here before you know it, and I would really appreciate having as much lead time as possible if I am to be able to make the appropriate preparations for them. For example, I suspect that a sense of nostalgia and sentimentality may cause Miss Asami to desire to have her bedroom converted into the nursery as that room was originally designed to be her own and is well suited to that purpose as there is a servant's quarter close by for feedings. However, I have been reading up on Water Tribe practices and I don't believe the use of wet nurses is very prevalent in your culture so I am not sure if you would insist on your own feedings in which case, Miss Asami's current bedroom is probably a bit too far away from the master bedroom to be entirely convenient."

Korra boggled. "Oh. Um. Wow. I have absolutely no idea what to think about that."

Yang sighed. "Well, I would suggest that you and Miss Asami start discussing these sort of items post haste!"

"Discuss what sort of items post haste?"

Both Korra and Yang turned around and were surprised to see Asami home from the office wearing a tired smile on her face.

"Hey!" Korra smiled and gave Asami a quick peck on the lips. "What are you doing home?"

"I think my throwing up all over the place was starting to cause my managers to feel a bit disconcerted," Asami replied wryly. "What about you? Feeling sick too?"

"I don't seem to have it as bad as you do," Korra said sympathetically, rubbing Asami's back. "But Yang had some questions for me so I came back to give him some thoughts on the room."

"Did he?" Asami's brow furrowed and it seemed like she was at war with herself, trying to decide whether she wanted to peek past Korra into the bedroom or not. Catching this, Korra stepped aside so that Asami could see, but Asami ended up turning away.

"You don't want to take a look?" Korra asked, a bit unsurely.

"No, I'm sure it'll be fine," Asami replied, though Korra didn't really believe her. "Hey, do you think we could talk for a bit?"

"Yeah, sure, of course."

They left the master bedroom and ended up wandering back to Asami's study.

"What's up?" Korra asked as she leaned on the edge of Asami's desk while her girlfriend sat down behind it.

And Asami told Korra what had happened at the office that day. "So... do you think it'll be alright to start letting folks know?" Asami asked. "I'm afraid folks at work are starting to come to their own conclusions what with all the nausea, and I don't know if it's such a good idea to just let the rumour mill keep doing its thing."

"Ah, good point." Korra sighed. "I don't think people have started putting two and two together on my end yet, but it's only going to be a matter of time, isn't it? You're right. We should say something before the papers start organizing betting pools as to who is the father of our children. How do you want to do this?"

"I'm not really sure, but maybe we could use a publicist to help us out?"

"That's not a bad idea." Korra nodded before sighing. "But before we do that..." she trailed off and looked at Asami meaningfully.

Asami finished Korra's thought for her. "... we should let your parents know first."

* * *

><p>Somehow, Korra wasn't sure how, Yang had bent the rules of time, space and physics, and just before she and Asami were about to retire for the evening, the butler announced that the master bedroom was ready for their use with a very pleased and satisfied smirk on his face, even as he dusted off the plaster off his person and tried to wipe that smudge of paint off his cheek.<p>

"It would be my honor if you'd take a look, Miss Asami, Miss Korra." Yang said, leading them to the room.

Asami raised an eyebrow. "How could you get this all done so quickly, Yang? I mean, doesn't the paint have to dry?"

The butler coughed and looked a little sheepish. "Well... I may have already started the renovations a little while back when I had learned that Miss Korra was joining the household, presumably on a permanent basis." He gave Korra a meaningful look as if to say, _'at least it had *better be* on a permanent basis,'_ and the look Korra shot the butler back was most definitely a, _'you bet that giant stick up your ass it is.'_

Korra stopped trading wordless barbs with Yang though, to watch Asami's reaction as she hesitantly reached out and squeezed the door handle of the double doors to the room that used to be her parents but was now going to be their's with not a small amount of trepidation on her features. Noticing this, Korra reached out and gave Asami's hand a squeeze and Asami threw her a thankful smile before she took a deep breath and opened the door.

Asami's eyes went wide as she stepped inside, and Korra's did too.

The room was nothing like how Asami remembered it to be and had been transformed from the mess that Korra had seen it in earlier that day.

Hiroshi and Yasuko had come from the fire nation and for all that Hiroshi had been a very modern and progressive man, the master bedroom had been decorated and designed with a lot of fire nation aesthetic inspiration. The walls had once been adorned with rich, dark, velvet tapestries, and the coloring for the entire room had been mostly reds, burgundies, blacks and golds. The floor had been onyx and columns had supported the ceiling along the walls and a massive four-poster bed complete with its own drapes had once dominated the back half of the room while a massive fireplace had taken up another wall.

It had been a very stately bedroom that would not have been completely out of place in a Fire Nation palace.

The room as it was now had been transformed with the tapestries taken down and replaced in some spots by framed pictures of beautiful landscapes. The walls were also painted in warm but light earth-tone colors, making the room seem much brighter and larger. Where once the room had been red and black, there were now a lot of tans and blues, though the floor remained onyx black from where it peaked out from under various rugs. (The pillars along the sides of the room had been decorative, rather than load bearing, so they had been removed).

The bed was very modern in style, with no posts. Both Asami and Korra were very pleased to note that it was king-sized; at least four times as wide as the narrow single that they'd been using for the last few weeks. They could practically do somersaults (and _*cough*_ other bedtime gymnastics) side-wise across that thing and not fall out.

The bed was now off to one side of the room, leaving the back half of the room largely open. There was currently a set of easily movable arm chairs and a coffee table taking the space (belonging to the same set as the arm chair that had been in Asami's old room), but Yang noted that the space could also be used for babies' cribs, if that was what Miss Asami and Miss Korra wished for.

The old fireplace had been ripped out and had been replaced by a smaller one with smooth rocks and a glass covering. There was a writing table to one side, and several of the bookshelves from Asami's old room had also made it over, as well as the trinkets and keepsakes that had been so important to Asami growing up (like the screwdriver set and the stuffed koala sheep).

And the item that dominated the middle of the room now was actually... Naga. The giant polar-dog was lying on a rug in the center of the room with her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth and her tail wagging happily. She got up when Asami and Korra entered into the room and trotted over to give both of them sloppy licks up the sides of their faces.

"Hey, girl! What are you doing in here?" Asami laughed as she ruffled the fur around Naga's neck even as Korra gave her scratches behind her ears.

"I hope it's alright," Korra said a little sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head. "When Yang asked me if there was anything I wanted to happen with this room, the only thing I wanted was to make sure that there was enough space for Naga to sleep on the floor somewhere. Um. If that's okay with you? She doesn't have to sleep with us every night, but I think she's been really lonely in the yard the last few weeks..."

Asami looked at the polar dog. "Hmm... I don't know, Naga. Do you snore worse than Korra?"

The giant polar dog simply gave a whine of affront and gave Asami another lick and Asami couldn't help but laugh even as she gave her girlfriend a smile and a nod of the head. "Of course it's fine."

Korra grinned and gave Asami a hug. "Did'ja hear that, Naga?"

As Korra played with her oldest friend, Asami stepped further into the room in examination, and felt her heart do some cartwheels across her chest.

Yang had done a very fine job with the room, and none of the almost debilitating pain she had expected to experience upon walking into this room had assaulted her at all. Instead, she only felt a soft sort of yearning, a slight twist of hurt, and nostalgia for those loved ones no longer with her. Oh, to be sure, her heart ached as she thought of her parents, and Asami suspected it always would, but at least it wasn't like their ghosts were sitting on her shoulders, like she had feared they would.

Then Asami's eyes fell across the collection of picture frames on one of the nightstands.

Walking over to it, she couldn't help but feel that twinge in her heart become a strong pang - but in a good way - as she recognized the second largest of the pictures to be the Sato family portrait taken when she was six years old with her mother and father behind her. They had taken this picture just a few weeks before her mother's passing.

Beside this picture frame was a slightly smaller one with herself and Korra in it, smiling dorkily at the cameraman who had surprised them. This one had been taken only a few days ago.

The third frame was the smallest, and maybe because it was the smallest that the picture itself seemed the most bursting with life. It featured a solid dozen people somehow all jammed together almost fighting for space in the picture. Korra and Asami were actually off to one side of the picture, while the airkids were in the centre. The left side of Bolin's face was half cut off, as was everything below Ikki's nose.

The final picture frame was the largest, behind the other three and didn't currently hold any pictures. It didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out whose photos would be put in there in the near future, but for now, the frame remained empty.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Asami picked up the picture of her parents and gazed at it, feeling her heart squeeze a little tighter in her chest.

Silently, Korra came to sit beside her and Asami felt her girlfriend put her arm around her waist, giving her a squeeze. "Was that a bad idea?" Korra asked softly.

And Asami shook her head, giving Korra a grand smile even with tears at the edge of her eyes. "No, of course not, not at all. It's perfect."

And Asami gave Korra a soft kiss to thank her for her thoughtfulness.

At the doorway, Yang gave a sigh of relief and excused himself, shutting the door behind him. Grandma Yin was in the hallway, and she gave him a gentle pat on his hand in approval.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I... should probably stop watching home and garden shows. XD Again, sorry for the lack of lulz in this one, but muse-chan's just been feeling kinda fluffy lately.


	21. Actually a Terrible Idea

In the morning, Korra and Asami headed over to Air Temple Island to make use of the high powered radio transmitter there. The air kids spotted them as soon as they set foot on the island and rushed out to meet them.

"Korra! Beauitful lady!" Meelo ran up the to the two young women and didn't bother to hide the disappointed expression on his face as he approached them. "Oh."

"Hey, what did we do to deserve this expression?" Korra laughed as she pulled the young airbender in for a hug, ruffling his hair.

"How come you're not huge like Mom was with Rohan yet?" Meelo put his hand on Korra's still mostly flat stomach and frowned. "Isn't there supposed to be a baby in there?" He looked over at Asami and put a hand gently on her stomach too.

Korra laughed. "We're still in the first trimester, Meelo. I might take a couple more weeks before we start to show. "

"That long?" Meelo wrinkled his nose. "Okay. Do you want me to go get Auntie Kya?"

"Actually, we were hoping to use the radio first before we went to see Kya, but if you'd let her know we're here that would be great."

The young airbender took off and Korra and Asami headed over to the tranmission tower where the operator rang up the Southern Water Tribe for them. The operator on that end picked up right away but it took a while longer before they could track down one of Korra's parents. In the end, it was Tonraq who answered.

"This is Tonraq."

"Hey Dad, it's Korra."

"Korra! What's going on, Sweetheart? We haven't heard from you in weeks. How was the vacation?"

"It was really great, Dad." Korra looked over at Asami and smiled, glad that they had rehearsed this conversation ad nauseam the previous night. While her relationship with her parents was a good and open one, and she could talk to them about pretty much anything, there were still some topics that would always be a little awkward to bring up between children and their parents - magical pregnancies outside of wedlock being one of them. "Hey, listen, a few things have happened in the last few weeks, and I kinda feel like I should talk to you and Mum about them. Do you think it would be okay if Asami and I came home for a few days to chat?"

There was a bit of a pregnant pause in the conversation then, and it took Korra a moment to realize that the most natural turn of phrase off her tongue, _'if Asami and I came home',_ had probably disclosed to her father quite a bit more about what it was she was hoping to talk to him and her mother about than she had initially planned for. Korra winced as she shot Asami an apologetic look while her girlfriend gave her a weak smile.

After a moment, Tonraq answered smoothly, though Korra thought she picked up on a hint of amusement in her father's tone, "of course. You know you can always come home whenever you want. And did you say Asami was coming with you? Of course she's welcome to stay with us. The Glacier Spirits Festival is just around the corner; are you bringing any other friends along?"

"I think it's just going to be us this time," Korra smiled, giving Asami a thumbs up.

"You guys are going to the Glacier Spirits Festival?! Oh oh oh ! I wanna go too!" From out of nowhere (well, maybe not nowhere; just around the doorway to the communications room), Ikki rushed out with her younger brothers hot on her trail, Tenzin and Kya following after the children.

"Ikki," Tenzen chastised his youngest daughter. "What have we told you about interrupting?"

Tonraq laughed merrily on the other end of the radio. "Is that Tenzin?"

"Hello, Tonraq."

"You should bring the kids down, Tenzin. I'm sure Katara would love to see how they've grown. Senna and myself as well."

The airmaster thought about it for a moment, stroking his beard. "It has been a while, hasn't it? But doesn't the festival start in a couple of days? Even if we took Oogi, by the time we got down there, we'll have missed out on most of it."

"Actually," Korra piped up. "Asami and I were planning on taking a little bit of a short cut through the spirit portal. That would cut down on the travel time to less than a day."

Tenzin was intrigued. "A short cut through the spirit portal?"

"Yeah." Korra smiled. "The spirit portal in Republic City opens up in the Spirit World in the same place as the portals that connect the North and the South pole, around the Tree of Time. You could walk between them in a few minutes. The more dangerous part would actually be getting from the South Pole back up to the Southern Water Tribe, but, if we had Oogi, that part of the trip might not be so bad at all."

"Oh Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, pleeeease? Can we go?" Ikki ran up to Tenzin excitedly, practically jumping up and down.

Tenzin thought about it some more before smiling. "Well... that doesn't sound like a bad plan at all."

* * *

><p>Kya finished the pre-natal exam of both Korra and Asami and smiled at both young women. "Everything looks good on my end. How have things been coming along for you two?"<p>

Korra and Asami shared a glance, and Korra motioned for Asami to go first.

"The morning sickness has been pretty brutal," Asami confessed, almost sighing in defeat. "There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it - it just seems to strike all the time, with no warning or pattern. I've tried to figure out if it's something I'm eating or something I'm smelling but it doesnt' seem to be any of those things. We've tried a few different remedies but nothing really seems to work. And if you wouldn't mind handing me that garbage can over there, I think I might be on the cusp of another bought."

"Ah." Kya gave Asami a sympathetic smile and handed her the can. She looked over at Korra. "Have you tried correcting her chi flow with water soothing yet?"

Korra blinked. "Wait, what's that?"

"Water soothing. Here, give it a try." The master healer called forth a small ball of water from her water skin and warmed it up, passing it over to Korra for handling. "This will help you too, but it won't be as effective."

Korra's eyes furrowed as she accepted the ball of glowing water and studied it for a moment. Her eyes widened as she recognize the technique as one Katara had taught her years ago. "Oh! Asami, can you take your shirt off?"

Asami did as Korra asked and then Korra soothed the warm glowing ball down overtop of Asami's throat, chest and belly. "And then I just...?"

Kya nodded. "Yup, that's right. Feel that block there? Try to smooth that out and re-balance the flow there."

Korra nodded and did as Kya instructed. Asami gave a sigh of relief as the nausea left her.

"Oh, Korra," Asami almost moaned. "That feels_ heavenly_."

Korra cracked a small crooked smile and shot the master healer a grateful look. "That's good news. Thanks Kya. And I can just do this when Asami feels sick until she feels better?"

Asami gave another moan of relief, one that had a distinctly amorous undertone to it, causing Korra's eyes to widen and a couple sweatdrops to sprout on the back of her head.

"You could." Kya laughed. "Or, hey, its got other, uh, practical applications too."

"Oh." Korra blushed. "Um. Good to know."

* * *

><p>Once the decision had been made to head to the Southern Water Tribe, things moved along relatively quickly after that.<p>

Oogi and Pepper were both saddled up, and there was a little bit of an argument as to who should ride with who.

Ultimately, it was decided that Tenzin, Pema, Bumi and Kya would ride on Oogi, while Korra and Asami rode with Jinora, Kai, Meelo, Ikki and Rohan on Pepper.

The decision had weighed complicatedly on Tenzin and Pema, and for the longest time, Jinora had argued that Korra and Asami should ride on Oogi, because if anything happened in the Spirit World, it was safer that she and Korra, as the most spiritually connected out of all of them, each be able to look after a separate bison full of passengers. Tenzin and Pema, on the other hand, felt much safer knowing that Korra was with all their children, and even went on to say that at least all of the over 50 crowd had actually already physically set foot in the spirit world, thank you very much young lady, whereas Jinora had only ever gone in spirit form.

Rohan, only four years old, was originally meant to ride with his parents. He raised a massive stink about being the only kid stuck in the "old and boring car" and had airbent his way up a tree, refusing to come down until his parents had managed to negotiate his cooperation by extracting a promise from him that he would be on his utmost best behaviour and would hold onto one of the adult's hands the entire time. (He nodded solemnly and went straight for Asami, much to his older brother's jealousy.)

"Are you sure it's okay for me to come along?" Kai asked Jinora quietly. He was seated beside Jinora on Pepper's head, while everyone else was in the saddle on the sky bison's back.

With her hands on the reins, Jinora could only simply smile back at Kai and then leaned her head onto his shoulder in support. "Of course it's okay. Don't worry, Gran Gran will love you."

"Oooh! Are you two going to kiss?" Ikki cat-called from the saddle, causing both teenagers to spring apart hastily.

Korra knew better but couldn't help herself as she laughed. "Kai and Jinora, sitting in a tree?"

Rohan made a face and looked over at his brother. "Eww! Why is everyone always talking about sucking face?"

"Because it's beautiful, Rohan." Meelo educated, although he did wrinkle his nose as she looked out of the corner of his eyes at his sister and her boyfriend. "Except when it's happening to your sisters. Then it's gross."

"Jinora!" Tenzin shouted from Oogi, flying just above and behind Pepper. "What are you doing? Pay attention to the skies!" The father of four was practically tailgating his daughter in his anxiety as they approached the spirit portal.

"Oh, lighten up, Tenzin," Bumi laughed. "Jinora's a better driver than you are. Remember that time you were making out with Lin and flew Oogi into a tree?"

"No." Tenzin glared at his brother. "If I recall the story correctly, you were the one who flew Oogi into a tree after you _stole_ him from me to use him to pick up a girl."

"Really? Is that what happened?" Bumi scratched the back of his head in confusion. "Funny, I could have _sworn_ Lin was involved in this story somehow."

Pema's eyes widened. "Oh my god. Don't tell me. Was _Lin_ the girl...?"

All three of Aang and Katara's children suddenly got very, very quiet.

(Back in Republic City, a certain police chief suddenly came down with a case of the chills and started to sneeze wildly, sending snot flying all over the face of the detective she had been talking to when the fit had come over her. Mako tried not to be too grossed out.)

Then Tenzin gave a long suffering sigh even while Bumi slapped his boot and howled wildly with laughter, his antics startling Bum-Jun a little bit. "Oh, I remember now! No, Lin wasn't the girl, Pema. She just showed up to give me a traffic violation for reckless driving." The retired general looked over at his two younger siblings, still howling with laughter. "But could you imagine if she _had _been? That would have made it three for three then, wouldn't it?"

Pema blinked. "Wait, three for-?" Lin and Tenzen were old news, and Pema didn't even feel all that upset anymore when she remembered how the policewoman had tried to arrest her after she had confessed her love to her future husband. But Kya?! Pema whirled around to look at her sister in law and Kya suddenly found the clouds to be very interesting. "Really? Seriously? Kya, when did this happen? Why haven't I heard of this before!"

The expression of long suffering on Tenzin's face grew ever more long and more full of suffering, and he didn't say anything while his sister laughed really weakly and awkwardly. "Aaah, there's not much to talk about, Pema. It was eons ago and-"

"Speak louder!" Korra's jovial voice came suddenly. "We can't hear the story!"

All of the older adults were startled to see that Pepper had maneuvered upwards and was now flying beside Oogi, the younger generation looking over at them with stupidly wide grins on their faces.

Luckily, (or maybe unluckily as the case may be), the adults didn't have to say very much more as the spirit portal was looming large in front of them, and with a gentle glimmer, the two sky bison entered into the Spirit World.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Bear with me for a little bit here guys. I'm not sure why this is happening, but I can't seem to get this idea out of my head, so the next couple of chapters are going to end up being a little more on the action/adventure-y side than fluffy humour. I hope this will strengthen this story and ultimately make it a little more enjoyable as a whole when it's all said in done. =_=


	22. Pardon the Intrusion

Though they hadn't planned on dallying in the Spirit World, it was too much to have to ask the airbending kids who were experiencing the amazing techno-colored world for the first time to just look down at the incredible landscapes from the backs of the sky bison without making a stop.

So they decided to take a lunch break and Jinora and Tenzin landed Pepper and Oogi down in the middle of the clearing between the three brilliant spirit portals shooting magnificently up into the heavens, just a little ways away from the Tree of Time. Everyone got down off the sky bison, and became thoroughly mesmerized by their surroundings, though the parents were careful to keep the youngest kids on a tight leash; it was still a dangerous and unfamiliar world after all.

And as much as they were taking in their surroundings with open eyed wonder, they also found themselves the object of many a spirit's wondrous exploration as well. A whole multitude of spirits of all sorts, shapes and sizes appeared from seemingly out of nowhere to crowd around them, floating amongst them, some of the more adventurous ones going so far as to hop onto Kya's shoulder, or Ikki's head, giving them chirps of curious greeting, even as several dragonfly bunnies flew to Bum-Jun and started to play with their friend as though they hadn't seen each other in a while.

"So this is the Spirit World!" Pema breathed, even as she kept a tight hold on her youngest son to keep him from running off after several white fist-sized spirits with knobbly bobble-heads. "It's absolutely beautiful! Oh, and the spirits are so friendly here! Hello!" She lifted an arm up to let a magnificent multi-colored butterfly-toad settle on a finger.

"I think the happiness everyone is feeling might have something to do with it," Jinora smiled, even as she gave dragon-fly bunny a hug. "Doesn't the Spirit World reflect how we ourselves are feeling, Korra?"

"Uh, yeah, I think that's how it works, right." Korra confirmed absently, not quite able to give her full undivided attention to Jinora as it was currently struck by something else.

"Keeping my thoughts nice and happy was the first thing I had to learn to do when we first got here on our vacation," Asami offered in supplemental explanation to Jinora, noticing the distracted way her girlfriend had answered the teenager's question. Asami moved towards Korra and gently took her hand, curious as to what had side-tracked her so.

And then Asami noticed that it was that Korra had noticed.

"Well, would you look at that!" Asami breathed in awe.

Korra could only nod her head stupidly, the ability to speak words taken from her as she looked up at the giant, ancient structure that was the Tree of Time. She had visited it on several different occasions over the years, but she had never seen it like this before.

For a very, very, _very_ long while, the Tree of Time had acted as a prison for Vaatu, Spirit of Chaos and Darkness, and it had completed its duty with solemnity and reverence, all of its energies spent on containing the Higher Spirit, trapping it within its own memories, until Vaatu had broken free during the last Harmonic Convergence.

The Tree was ancient – as old as the physical world was, and maybe even as old as the spirit world was, and its magnificent trunk, roots and branches were twisted and gnarled with age. Even as recently as just a few weeks ago, when Korra and Asami had visited it during their vacation, the Tree of Time had been barren. And though Korra had been able to sense at the time that something was different with it compared to how it had felt during her battle with Vaatu, or when she had meditated within it whilst still suffering from the last remaining bits of poison within her, she hadn't been able to figure out exactly what that something was.

But now, as she gazed up at the Tree of Time in wondrous awe with everyone else, it became abundantly obvious to Korra exactly what that change had been: tiny drops of green were starting to dot along each of the Tree of Time's many branches, foliage on the cusp of sprouting.

The Tree of Time was budding.

"It wasn't doing that the last time we were here, was it?" Asami whispered softly to Korra, even as they walked up to the tree.

"It definitely wasn't," Korra confirmed. She couldn't help herself as she reached out to touch one of the green sprouts growing from the tree's trunk. Unexpectedly, the leaf quivered and broke off from its stem, falling into Korra's palm. "Oh!"

As they watched, the leaf unfurled in Korra's hand until it was roughly one third the size of Korra's palm and then quickened, calcifying into a beautiful light green rock. A sparkle of light danced up from the leaf, like the after-splash of a drop of water falling into a pond, and in that sparkle, Korra and Asami could see a brief flash of memory – a scene of themselves from just a few weeks ago, when they had first approached the tree while they had been on vacation.

The brief flash didn't last long, barely a second, before it disappeared, leaving only the leaf-stone in Korra's palm and a very warm and fuzzy feeling in both of their hearts:

Evidently, the Tree of Time remembered them.

Asami looked over at Korra, touched. She gave Korra's hand a tight squeeze.

Korra returned Asami's look, a brilliant smile on her own face even as she squeezed Asami's hand back.

As one they looked up at the magnificent tree-spirit, and bowed their heads reverently, Korra giving a soft murmur of heartfelt thanks to the Tree of Time for its blessing.

"Intriguing," Tenzin murmured, walking up to the tree. Following after Korra's example, he also touched a sprouting bud gently, though nothing happened for him. The airmaster smiled, knowing better than to pull the leaf off of its stem forcefully and simply went to examine another leaf. "The buds are all in various stages of growth, and as the leaves grow, they seem to calcify or crystalize into stone. Jinora, come take a look at this one. Isn't it beautiful?"

"It is," Jinora murmured in appreciation, touching one of the leaves gently, careful not to disturb it. "Have you ever heard of the Tree of Time in bloom, Daddy?"

"You know, I don't know if I have! There haven't been very many spiritual scholars in the whole of human history who have been able to experience the Tree of Time, after all, and the few texts I've read of the tree have always described it as barren." Tenzin stroked his beard, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. "But I suppose, we _are_ at the dawn of a new age, with the opening of a third spirit portal and the peaceful coexistence of spirits and humans side by side. It only appears fitting that even the Tree of Time would turn a new leaf, as it were, a new cycle of rebirth."

And Tenzin gave Korra a smile of such fatherly pride that the Avatar couldn't help but blush, looking away and scratching her cheek embarrassingly.

"Hey, cool!" Meelo laughed, air-jumping up the Tree of Time's trunk and disappearing into the alcove in its middle. "Mommy! Daddy! There's a room inside of here!"

"Meelo, get down from there!" Tenzin called after his oldest son, alarmed. "This is the Tree of Time! It's a hallowed and holy place and you shouldn't just leap inside its most sacred centre so disrespectfully-!"

But the young airbender didn't even seem to acknowledge his father's reproachful words at all as Meelo poked his head back out from the alcove, a brazen grin on his face. "Hey, Beautiful Lady, did you visit this place while you and Korra were on vacation?"

"Uh... maybe...?" Asami didn't mean to blush so wantonly at the innocent question, even as she gave Korra an amused look from the corner of her eyes which her girlfriend returned. That particular memory was one Asami was sure she'd treasure for the rest of her existence. On her deathbed, she suspected it might even be the memory that would take her into the next life.

The blushing amusement in Asami's tone and Korra's eyes was not lost on Tenzin, who looked from his son down to the lovebirds then back up to his son before an expression of absolute disbelief came onto his face and he stifled a long-suffering groan that still none-the-less communicated the _'are you two serious?! *Inside* the Tree of Time?!'_ incredulity he was feeling very clearly to the rest of his family.

"You left something here." Meelo thrust his arm out into the air and clenched in his fist for all to see was a frilly, lace-lined brassiere from Future Industries' fashion garments line.

Kai squinted up at Meelo confusedly. "What is that thing? Ow!" He gave Jinora a bewildered look as he rubbed his arm. "D-did you just hit me?"

"Sorry." Jinora murmured, blushing furiously. She couldn't quite answer her boyfriend when he followed up with an incredulous _'why?!'_ either.

Asami could only stare at the item of clothing in Meelo's hand in out and out shock for a while before her face went bright red and she palmed her face in absolute embarrassment. "Oh, god. So _that's_ where it went."

Korra should have done a better job hiding her snort of laughter behind her hand but she couldn't help herself either. "Huh. I was wondering why you hadn't worn that one in a while – ow!" She murmured before Asami smacked her on the backside of her head.

Meelo jumped out of the Tree of Time and valiantly handed Asami her misplaced underwear and Asami tried not to die of humiliation as she took the proffered item and shoved it into her backpack.

Korra coughed into her fist even as she gave her girlfriend a teasing smile. "We should probably get going back; Dad said he'd send a team to meet us at the South Pole since the weather's too rough for Oogi and Pepper to fly. We probably shouldn't keep them waiting."

"Aww! Can we stay a little while longer on our way back?" Ikki asked her parents plaintively as she set the dragonfly bunny she had been playing with back on the ground.

Tenzin and Pema looked at each other and shrugged. "We'll see, Sweetie. I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but the Spirit World can be very dangerous."

As they all turned to head back to Oogi and Pepper, Tenzin's words were proven true when a seemingly innocuous spirit roughly the same size and shape as a black raven landed in the clearing in front of Korra and Asami, stopping them in their tracks.

Asami looked down at the bird in confusion, who stared up at her wordlessly, its jet-black eyes blinking rapidly. "Oh, hello. Can I help you, Spirit?"

The spirit appeared to be quite startled to be addressed and cocked its head to the side. "Oh. That's strange. Can you see me, Human?"

"Uh, yes...?" Asami quirked an eyebrow at Korra, who could only blink in confusion. "Shouldn't I?"

"Huh. Well, normally, humans can only see us when it's their time to go but I'm pretty sure the bulletin wasn't for you. Let me double-check." The raven rummaged through its side satchel and skimmed over a piece of paper. "Hmm. Nope. Nothing about the mother. Not sure why you can see me then." It put the piece of paper back into its pouch before giving Asami a look that was meant to be apologetic. "Oh well. Pardon the intrusion; this will only take a moment."

A terrible sinking sensation suddenly came over Asami and she took an instinctive step back even as Korra's eyes widened in alarm and she took a step forward, her arm outstretched to stop the spirit.

"Wait, wha-?"

_"__ASA-!"_

With no further warning, the raven-spirit flapped its wings and launched itself through Korra's outstretched fingers and into Asami, disappearing into her middle. Asami's eyes went wide with shock before they rolled into the back of her head. She started to fall to the ground.

_"__-MI!" _Korra cried. Twisting about, she managed to grab onto Asami's body just before she hit the ground, cushioning her girlfriend's body with her own as she collapsed.

Shouts and cries of confusion suddenly came from all directions as the rest of the air family rushed over to where Asami and Korra had fallen.

"Korra! Asami! What's going on!? What's happened?!"

But before anyone could reach them, the raven-spirit reappeared from Asami's middle, and everyone stopped in their tracks, stupefied. Everyone could see the shining golden ball of light the raven carried in its beak. It hopped to the ground a little ways away from where Korra was still holding onto Asami in dumb-founded shock and placed the ball of light onto the ground before opening up the side-satchel it was carrying and then placing the ball inside carefully.

"And there we go! Perfect! Sorry for the interruption; I'll be on my way now!" Without any further warning, the raven-spirit bobbed its head in polite goodbye and then unfurled its wings, flying off into the skies, taking the soul of the unborn child who had been inside Asami's womb with it.


	23. What is the Meaning of This!

As Korra held Asami tightly against her chest in her arms, she stared up at the retreating form of the raven-spirit – the Shinigami – who had so casually shattered her entire world just moments before.

Korra was no stranger to anger. Whilst the suffering she'd endured over the last three years had greatly matured her from the brash, hot-headed teenager she once had been, that hot, boiling emotion still tended to bubble inside her veins at the slightest provocation; she'd just learned to control it a bit better so that it did not control her.

But the maelstrom of emotion that had ripped out her heart and left a gaping hole in her chest, twisted her guts and left her entire body frozen was entirely different.

This... this was not just anger, not just fury.

This... this was _wrath_. But it was calm. And it was cold.

Very, very cold.

"Tenzin, get Asami to Katara, and get everyone else out of here," Korra commanded of her airbending master with a very dangerously soft intensity in her voice the likes of which Tenzin had _never_ heard uttered from the young woman before, even as she gently scooped Asami off the ground and passed her over to him.

"Korra, wait," Tenzin started to say.

But even as he did so, the skies darkened ominously, the atmosphere reflecting the negativity that was roiling off the avatar in thick waves so furiously her aura was almost visible as it withered the grass around her feet into dead brown patches. He could hear his family give various cries of alarm as Pema grabbed Rohan and held their frightened youngest to her chest, eyeing the skies fearfully as a cruel wind started to blow all around them. There was a terrific crack of thunder followed by flashes of lightning as the entire Spirit World suddenly plunged into darkness, echoing that which had taken Korra at the pit of her stomach and twisted.

The ground started to rumble, threatening to split at its very seems and the rock and rubble strewed about the clearing started to vibrate and shake, some of the smaller pieces going so far as to entirely lift up from the ground and hover unsteadily in the air.

Pepper and Oogi uttered low moans of fear as the sky bison nervously backed away, looking all abouts themselves for the cause of the disturbance.

The spirits whom had previously been playing with the airkids so joyfully in the clearing all scattered away in fear, those unfortunate few not quick enough to escape suddenly finding themselves caught in the sphere of negativity that was swirling all around the Avatar malevolently, causing their previously cute and cuddly forms to twist and sharpen and darken as they transformed into dark spirits.

Ikki gave a cry of fear as the dragon-fly bunny that she had previously held in her arms struggled free and suddenly tripled in size, sprouting fangs bigger than her forearm and whirling around to hiss at her menacingly, advancing a step on her. She fell over and backpedaled away from the angry spirit until she ran into Jinora, who wrapped her arms around her younger sister protectively and pulled her to her feet, both of them scrambling towards the safety of their parents.

"Korra, please, your emotions are affecting everything around us. You have to calm down!" Tenzin pleaded, even as he motioned for his family to all head towards the air bison.

"That's not going to happen," Korra advised. "So you'd better get everyone out of here, _now_." And without another word, Korra's eyes burst into the shining white glow of the Avatar state and she summoned up a cyclone of wind about her waist, propelling her up into the air after the Shinigami, causing Tenzin to flinch from the force of the gale, and have to turn his head away.

But just before Korra could explode into action, she felt something grab onto one of her boots and ground her, stalling her ascent upwards.

"K-Korra...!"

Looking down, absolutely _furious_ that Tenzin would _dare_ try to stop her, it took Korra a moment to realize that it wasn't her airbending master whom had reached out to stay her, but her girlfriend instead.

Asami's eyes were wide and filled with helpless panic. "Korra, wait!" Asami begged again, her voice barely audible above the whipping of the gale.

Korra's brow furrowed. "It's okay, Asami," she said as calmly as she could. "Everything's going to be okay. Go with Tenzin. I'm going to go get our baby back. They are _not_ going to get away with this."

But Asami's grip only tightened on Korra's boot.

"I'm coming with you!" Asami shouted, refusing to let Korra go. She gave Tenzin a look and tugged at his hands and the airbending master knew to unhand her, gingerly setting her down onto the ground. Still refusing to let Korra go, Asami stumbled forward a couple of steps and it was seeing this pitiful display that caused a thoroughly distraught expression to come onto Korra's face as she released the winds she had summoned to dropped back onto the ground, reaching out to help steady her beloved.

"Asami," Korra pleaded.

"I'm coming with you." Asami repeated, even as she had to use Korra's arms to pull herself upright.

Korra's brow knit with consternation. "Asami-!"

"I'm. Coming. _With._ You!" Asami all but snarled, teeth bared and tears streaming silent from the corners of her eyes, her expression twisted as the anguish she was feeling so keenly within her finally escaped onto her face. Asami's grip on Korra's forearm tightened hard enough to draw blood and she probably would have if Korra hadn't been wearing a bracer. With her other hand, she reached out to grab Korra's own and this she put on her lower abdomen, and held it there, and Korra thought her heart would break into a thousand pieces as her hand trembled over top of Asami's belly. She watched Asami struggle to re-contain the unbearable torment welling up from within her, barely able to hold back with gritted teeth the scream in her lungs.

And then Asami swallowed and squeezed her eyes tightly shut, and Korra could feel her girlfriend's nails dig into her forearm, enough for pain to register in Korra's nerves even in the Avatar state and Korra involuntarily winced before Asami adjusted her grip so that her nails weren't pinching though her fingers remained firm as iron around Korra's arm.

Then Asami opened her eyes again, and very calmly wiped the tears from the corners of them. She had very forcibly schooled the expression of anguish that had been on her face but a moment before into one of grim determination and the fire in her green eyes brooked no argument. She locked them onto Korra's shining own and Korra could not look away.

"I'm not losing any more family. I'm _not_." Asami said very firmly, no trace of trembling or weakness or emotion in her voice. Her words were absolute. Nothing less.

"I'm. Coming. With. You."

And at that moment, even though Korra was The Avatar - was even in the _Avatar State_ - making her The Most Powerful Being In The World - there was absolutely _no_ arguing with Asami Sato.

Wordlessly, Korra scooped Asami into a bridal carry and then shot up into the sky, powerful jets of fire blasting forth from her feet, propelling them upwards with an intensity that forced Tenzin back several paces as he covered his face with his cape else he find himself horribly burned.

Tenzin's family rushed up to him, shouting in panic, but the master airbender was able to wave them back.

"I'm alright, I'm alright," Tenzin soothed his family, even as he pushed everyone urgently towards Oogi and Pepper. "Everyone get to the bison. We have to get out of here now."

"But what about Korra and Asami?" Jinora cried.

"I'd worry more for the spirits." Tenzin replied grimly, with absolute no irony at all.

* * *

><p>The raven-spirit couldn't help but feel rightly pleased with himself. His regiment had had a tough few days as they had had to suffer an unwanted interloper in their ranks for the last little while and they were well behind in their quota, finding themselves scrambling to make up for lost soul-count as a certain idiot crane's antics had cost them more time to fix his mistakes than anything else.<p>

Death was an essential part of life, after all, and there would be hell to pay if the world was thrown out of balance because of the shinigamis' inability to perform their very vital function.

He had just dropped off his last soul at the Administration for processing and bid the pleasant-old-woman-soon-to-be-blank-slate adieu and had gone out for the next one when he had spied the curious group of humans by the spirit portals and recognized that one of their souls had been marked for death.

_'This was a nice and short trip!'_ He thought to himself as he idly flew back to the Administration of the Mortal Coil, unaware of the peril he was in as the skies started to darken all around him and thunder boomed ominously. The raven-spirit blinked, looking up at the skies curiously, not quite able to figure out what had caused the change in atmosphere; he himself was in a fine mood after all as his latest soul would put him one up on his quota for the day.

And then he felt it; a deeply terrifying force coming up behind him like an ominous tidal wave that sent a chill through his entire body and caused his feathers to all ruffle and seize.

_'What the heck is that?!'_ He wondered as he turned around and gave a squawk of alarm as what looked like a fiery hurricane of death and pain sped towards him.

It was two of the humans from the party he had just visited, though for the life of him, he could have sworn that humans were incapable of flight (or, to be more exact, air and fire assisted propulsion). It took him a little while longer before he remembered that only one human was capable of summoning more than one element at a time which meant that one of the two humans could only be the Avatar.

There was no mistaking the miasma of negativity roiling off from the humans as they rocketed towards him. He could feel it grow stronger and stronger as it approached him, the dark emotions resonating within him, twisting him and darkening him, calling out to those similar feelings that resided within him like they resided in all things, amplifying those dark emotions until they crowded out everything else.

Fear. Pain. Anger.

_Wrath_.

_'What the heck-?!'_

The shinigami gave one final squawk of alarm before he felt himself succumb to his environs and his form twisted into that of a dark spirit, expanding his size several times, his beak and talons suddenly sharpened to the point of monstrosity, his mind no longer capable of higher thought, only instinct.

He whirled around, shrieking in outrage as he addressed the beings who were barreling towards him with such murderous intent roiling about them. Devolved as he was, he could not call out to the Avatar as he was no longer capable of speech. He couldn't even recognize her for who she was, only knowing that the beings coming towards him meant him harm.

And he was entirely correct; the Avatar would have ripped him apart into two as she did not slow down to address him or identify herself at all. She just continued to barrel at him at lightning speeds as though she were ready to punch right through him and he was only able to save himself by twisting himself to the side at the last moment, just narrowly avoiding her crash.

As he hovered in the air, flapping his wings furiously to stay aloft, he watched, irritated and stunned, as the Avatar circled back for a second pass. His eyes narrowed as he realized that the human she had been carrying in her arms had gone mysteriously missing.

He didn't have time to wonder where the second human went because at that moment, he felt something land on the back of his neck and wrap itself around his throat, strangling him.

"MONSTER!" The human woman screamed, tightening her legs around the giant shinigami dark-spirit's throat even as she desperately clung to him as he struggled wildly to be free of her. "Give her back! Give her back _this instant_!"

Blinded by rage and fury, and incapable of understand the noise coming out of the human's mouth, the dark spirit could only continue to screech in outrage as he tried to fling the human off even as he desperately flung his body to the side to avoid the giant goat of flame the Avatar sent his way.

Utterly devolved into base instincts of rage and fury under the unprovoked attacks, the dark-spirit continued to scream in fury as he opened his beak and sent forth bolts of lightning at the Avatar, before he launched himself upwards into the air in an attempt to get the high ground, hurling huge gusts of wind with each flap of his wings at his enemy.

It was then that he felt an incredible stinging pain on his back as the human woman riding him had somehow managed to summon the power of lightning into the contraption she wore on her hand and zapped him full force with electrical currents. But this evidently backfired as the pain only caused the former shinigami to feel more enraged and the more enraged he got, the stronger a dark spirit he became, doubling in size and power once more.

His screech of fury echoed all across the Spirit World as he struggled to unseat the annoyance from him and he launched himself ever higher up before flinging himself into a series of loop-de-loops.

Somehow, the human on his back continued to cling to him, but as it was, in one of these up-side-down cycles, the soul that had been put into the former shinigami's side-satchel for safe keeping slipped loose and fell out of the bag, falling downwards.

Inexplicably, this was what finally loosed the annoyance from his being, as the human woman on his back gave a cry of dismay and then launched herself into the air after it, arms desperately reaching out to grab hold of the brilliantly glowing globe that was the untethered soul marked for return to the Administration of the Mortal Coil.

* * *

><p>"Give her back!" Asami screamed even as she punched and kicked and clawed at the dark spirit with a scrappiness born of complete and utter desperation.<p>

She'd never fought like this before. She'd never _felt_ like this before. If nothing else, Asami Sato had always prided herself in being able to keep a calm and level head during a tussle and that was usually what saw her through to physical victory over her opponents which was more often than not accomplished in ways as elegant as they were efficient.

But this time, everything was different. She'd never experienced a fight with stakes - nor altitude - at quite these heights before and Asami Sato was many things but in-her-right-mind was definitely _not_ one of them as she pulled her electric glove from her backpack and jammed its fingers - hard - into the dark-spirit's back and let the currents loose.

By some divine providence, she managed to jolt the dark-spirit without frying herself before a hard turn by the spirit flung the glove away from her and her mount redoubled its efforts to loose her.

Teeth gritted and eyes squeezed mostly shut, Asami held on desperately for dear life as the giant dark-spirit she was straddling tried its absolute damndest to fling her off. She was only able to just barely crack her eyes open a sliver in time to catch the sight of something glowing and golden slowly fall past her.

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.

Asami's eyes widened in horror as she recognized that glowing ball of light as the soul of her unborn child and as this realization struck her, her grip on the giant spinning dark-spirit's feathers loosened. With one arm outstretched, she desperately reached for the golden globe and missed it by mere inches.

"Noooo!"

Face twisting into determination, Asami pulled her legs up from where they were clamped around the giant bird-spirit's neck and then forcibly shoved herself away from the dark spirit with as much power as she could get out of her thighs, launching herself after the soul.

With her arms outstretched in front of her, and the wind stinging her eyes as she fell headlong downwards, Asami desperately clawed at the falling ball of light, coming infuriatingly close a couple times, her fingertips just barely grazing the ball.

"Unggaah!" With one final grunt of exertion, Asami _reached_.

And finally, _finally,_ the warm ball of light was in her grasp and she hastily brought her arms back up to her body, cradling the soul of her unborn child protectively against her chest, even as the ground rushed up and up to meet her.

_'You're safe! You're safe!'_ Asami thought desperately, squeezing her eyes shut, wishing beyond hope that somehow, impossible as it was, that the soul she was cradling so dearly against her could hear her. _'I've got you! I'm not letting you go! I'm not going to let you go for *anything*!'_

With her eyes squeezed as tightly shut as they were, Asami couldn't see the ground as it rushed up to meet her.

She couldn't see the furious wrath of the dark-spirit that was zooming down to destroy her.

She couldn't see the expression of absolute terror on Korra's face as her lover wildly raced against both of the above to save her.

But she could hear Korra's terrified screaming before everything went dark.

"ASAAAAAMIIII!"

Then, mere moments before Asami hit the ground, the entirety of the Spirit World shifted and folded back on itself, rearranged itself at the spiritually molecular level in ways the physical world could only dream about in its wildest fantasies (or science fictions): the entire ground underneath them suddenly came to life, opening up and rushing up to meet them like two snapping sides of a giant venus fly-trap, clapping shut around them with a resounding _'booooom!'_, swallowing Asami, Korra, and the raven-spirit whole, plunging them all into darkness.

And instead of splattering herself messily all over the ground, Asami found herself lying on the floor of a familiar place that smelled heavily of stamped papers and bureaucracy, her baby's soul still cradled in her arms against her chest, warm against the palms of her hands and glowing brilliantly.

Korra was lying on the floor beside her, one arm stretched out over Asami's shoulders.

In front of them loomed the gigantic, terrifying form of King Enma.

Last time she had seen him, Asami had already found the higher spirit in charge of administering the mortal coil to be greatly frightening, as half of his massive avian form was that of a bleached-white skeleton while the other half was a foreboding jet black.

But now, King Enma's countenance was even more frightening as his shape was twisting and malforming even as they stared at him, becoming more and more grotesque, affected as he was, like all spirits, by the negativity of the emotions Asami and Korra had brought with them.

King Enma was not pleased and he glowered down at Asami and Korra with barely restrained rage in his eyes.

_'AVATAR! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!'_

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Yikes! *sweatdropping profusely* Um, so, in retrospect, the last chapter ended at a place that was probably a lot more cruel than it had to be, so please accept my humble apologies to those of you who seem to have suffered heart attacks. Sorry! ^^;;

(But seriously? Really? Did folks really think I'd just up and off Asami II that easily after, like, 50K of text?

... ... ... *boggles* Holy crap, just when did this crackfic turn into 50K of text?!)


	24. An Understanding

It took Korra a moment to figure out what happened as she opened her eyes and saw Asami's face in profile quite close to her, lying on her back on the floor, her eyes and teeth clenched tightly together as she desperately held something glowing to her chest. One of Korra's arms was stretched out on top of Asami, laid across her chest, her hand cupped around Asami's far shoulder.

_'Asami...?'_ Korra thought blurrily, not quite understanding what had happened. _'Did... did I make it...?'_

And then Korra's eyes snapped wide opened as she remembered what had happened - the utterly horrifying, _horrifying_ sensation of disbelief as she watched Asami launch herself into the air away from the dark-spirit, her arms outstretched as she reached for the stolen soul of their child - the roar of the wind in her ears as she rocketed down after her girlfriend, screaming her name - the gut wrenching despair as she realized she _wasn't_ going to make it in time - then the complete bafflement and chaos when everything went dark as the Spirit World rose up to swallow them...

_'AVATAR! DO NOT IGNORE ME! ANSWER ME NOW! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK A SHINIGAMI OF THE ADMINISTRATION?!'_

And Korra jerked upright and whirled around to glare up at King Enma, the higher spirit whom had evidently rescued them and brought them straight to his attention.

The Administration of the Mortal Coil resembled _nothing_ of its stately and organized if techno-colored forum from their first visit. Where once the place resembled a flowery and nature-y multi-colored and psychedelic civic centre in the shape of a long hall, now it was the stuff of nightmares. Everything seeming to be made of cruel black flames, and the twisted shapes of hordes and hordes of dark-spirits cackling discordantly as they danced around them with barely controlled expressions of malevolent glee on their faces; it was as though Korra and Asami had fallen into the pits of hell itself.

And Korra felt that cold, cold fury come over her again as she quickly recalled the circumstances that had brought her and Asami here to this place and her mouth twisted into a snarl of hate. "You're asking me?!" She sputtered. "You send one of your cronies after my _child_, and _YOU _have the audacity to ask _ME_ what _I'M_ doing?!"

With a scream of outrage, Korra dove back into the Avatar State and her aura flared all around her, the four elements bursting into magnificent wheels of air, earth, fire and water all around her as her hair whipped about. She stamped one foot on the ground in front of her and pulled her arms upwards and the ground underneath her feet rumbled obediently to life for her, carrying her person upwards on a column of rock until she was thirty feet in the air, at eye-level with the King of Hell himself.

"How _DARE_ you!" Korra screamed, thrusting one hand back and ready to throw a column of fire at the higher spirit.

_'CALM YOURSELF, AVATAR!' _Boomed King Enma, his voice shattering all the windows in the Administration, even as his form continued to malform, the skeletal bones on his right side twisting and splintering and splitting into wild, evil forks, even as his left side began to evaporate into wickedly dancing shadows of darkness. _'BEFORE YOUR EMOTIONS ROB EVEN *ME* OF THE CAPACITY FOR REASON!'_

Korra could only continue to scream in outrage. But just before she loosed the column of fire she held in her palms, a white light in the shape of a stylized diamond began to glow in her torso, and Korra found herself suddenly sapped of her strength.

_'King Enma is correct,'_ whispered an ancient and wise voice from deep within Korra's soul. _'You must calm yourself now before your negativity completely drives the ability to form higher thoughts from him. The consequences of robbing King Enma of his reason are disastrous beyond description; the scales of life and death cannot be unbalanced!'_

"Raava!" Korra gasped as she found herself forcibly pushed out of the Avatar State, her eyes flickering rapidly before they returned to their natural sky-blue. The column of stone under her feet shuddered and then retracted downwards, bringing Korra back to the ground.

"Korra!" Asami cried, rushing forward to grab her lover's shoulders and pull her against her trembling form, even as her other hand retained its death grip on the glowing ball of light in her hand crushed between them. The embrace was as much to comfort Korra as it was to comfort Asami herself.

And Korra buried her face into the side of Asami's neck and gripped her back tightly, holding her close, refusing to let go, feeling the crazy racing of Asami's pulse against her face as both their hearts worked overtime pounding away in their chests in adrenalin-rushed fear.

They held onto each other for a long time as they both struggled to school their thoughts, to calm their feelings, both of them still tense as wire.

It took a while, but eventually, they were able to reign in their emotions, and as they did so, using each other's presence for strength, so too, did their environs, and all of the spirits around them, until, finally, the Administration of the Mortal Coil resembled more of the bureaucratic centre for heavenly procedural processing than the pits of Hell itself.

The spirits that functioned within the Administration slowly shrank and regained their regular forms too, freed from their dark-spirit selves.

A familiar blue blob spirit picked himself up off the ground and groaned, giving his head a shake before he found his glasses and pocket protector.

"Wow." Bob muttered, adjusting his glasses. "Now that was a trip. Reminds me of when my mother-in-law comes to visit."

_'THANK YOU, AVATAR. ASAMI SATO. THAT IS... APPRECIATED.' _There was definitely a note of relief in King Enma's thought as it boomed out through the whole of the Administration. _'NOW, IF YOU WOULD PLEASE EXPLAIN YOURSELVES. WHAT DID YOU MEAN, THAT WE 'CAME AFTER' YOUR CHILD? DID YOU NOT WISH TO RETURN THE SOUL TO US, AS WE HAD PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED?'_

Asami's eyes stretched impossibly wide. "W-what? No! _No!_ We're keeping the baby - both of them! W-Why would you ever think we wanted to return her?!"

_'THEN FOR WHAT PURPOSE HAVE YOU RETURNED TO THE SPIRIT WORLD? WHAT WERE WE TO THINK WITH THIS AGREEMENT OUTSTANDING BETWEEN US AND YOUR SUDDEN REAPPEARANCE AT OUR DOORSTEP, JUST BEFORE THE EXPIRY OF OUR CONTRACT?'_

Korra gaped, feeling the incredulity rise inside her. "What?! But we were just traveling through the spirit portal on route to the South Pole!" She traded a horrified glance with Asami and Korra couldn't help but feel her heart drop into her stomach. _'Oh! God! Y-you can't be serious! This is *my* fault?! They thought we wanted to return the baby's soul because we were just taking a flippin' short-cut through the Spirit World?!'_ She had to wrestle with herself to keep herself from being overwhelmed - least her sentiments affected the environs all around her again.

Korra whirled around to take a look at the blue blob spirit she recognized from last time. "You! Didn't you send Botan to look after us? Weren't we supposed to tell him if we wanted to... to return the baby? Which we absolutely did _NOT_ do, by the way!"

Bob was a bit startled to be confronted by Korra like this and there was a look of put-on-the-spot shock on his face before he recovered. "Um." He blinked rapidly as he adjusted his glasses. "Well, you're right there; I specifically _did_ ask Botan to cover this arrangement, given its unusual circumstances, but, hang on a second..."

The blue blob oozed over to where the unfortunate raven-spirit who had taken the soul was still twitching on the ground with his tongue hanging out of the side of his beak and swirls in his eyes and retrieved a piece of paper from his satchel. The spirit quickly read over the bulletin and his brow furrowed in confusion. "What? But that doesn't make any sense!" Bob looked up at King Enma, an anxious expression on his blobby face. "There's a pre-existing flag on this soul, King Enma. Here, take a look." The spirit sent the piece of paper fluttering up to the higher spirit's face and the massive spirit silently gazed upon the cryptic writing on the paper, his eyes scanning back and forth rapidly.

Korra could barely restrain herself, and a look at the anxiousness on Asami's face showed that she was terrifically confused as well. "What is it? What's going on?"

Bob looked over at Korra and Asami. "Someone has placed a flag on the soul of your child that should it ever set foot into the Spirit World again, it is to be transported immediately back to the Administration of the Mortal Coil for further processing. So it looks like when you guys came back into the Spirit World, that flag got tripped and it sent a signal to the nearest raven - in this case, poor Nigel-" Bob nodded at the raven who was still twitching on the floor, "-to bring it in."

Bob frowned as he adjusted his glasses, clearly perturbed. "Do you recognize that sigil, King Enma? Seven hundred years I've been doing this job and I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before!"

King Enma was silent for a long time before he closed his eyes and let the piece of paper fall back down into Bob's tentacles.

The halls of the Administration rumbled as he sighed, a very long sigh of much suffering.

_'IT IS THE SIGIL OF LADY MENG.'_

Bob boggled. "What? Old Meng Po? What's she want with this soul?"

_'I DO NOT KNOW, BUT WE HAD BEST INVESTIGATE.'_ King Enma's eyes swivelled over to Asami and Korra. _'IN THE MEANWHILE, AVATAR, ASAMI SATO, I WOULD SUGGEST THAT YOU STAY AWAY FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD UNTIL WE CAN GET THIS SORTED. AS THIS SIGNAL IS CONTINUOUS, ALL RAVENS WILL THINK YOUR CHILD'S SOUL MARKED FOR DEATH, AND I THINK WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT WE DO NOT WANT ANOTHER... MISUNDERSTANDING.'_

Asami's eyes narrowed. "Misunderstanding?" She echoed incredulously. "You people almost _kill_ my child, and you call it a _misunderstanding_?!" She clenched her hands into fists. "Well UNDERSTAND THIS! STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM MY BABY GIRL! Death is _NOT_ taking anyone else away from me anytime soon! Do we have an _understanding_?!"

All the spirits in the Administration gaped at Asami, at this... this _human_... who had dared speak to the higher spirit in charge of life and death itself in such a disrespectful manner, their minds completely blown.

Asami struggled to contain herself, her arms shaking with fury as she glared up at King Enma, and the spirits who were closest to her all quickly squirreled away least they be caught in the anger that was radiating off of her.

Then Asami closed her eyes and took a deep breath, schooling herself as best she could. When she opened her eyes, she gazed down at the glowing ball of light she was still cradling preciously in her hands and clutched it closer to her chest. "Come on, Korra." She said quietly. "Let's get out of here."

Korra could only nod mutely.

* * *

><p>Korra and Asami were mostly silent as they made their way back to the spirit portals, holding hands and feeling utterly exhausted from their ordeal. They slumped down at the foot of the Tree of Time, resting their backs against its trunk.<p>

"Oh god." Asami said quietly, closing her eyes and resting the side of her face against Korra's shoulder. "I can't believe that just happened."

"I can't believe you just threatened King Enma." Korra smiled weakly.

"Like you weren't 20 seconds away from doing it yourself."

"Maybe 10 seconds."

And Asami chuckled tiredly as she cracked opened one eye and gave her girlfriend a sardonic look.

They shared a kiss before Korra gently broke away to look down at the golden ball of light that Asami was still holding onto this entire time. She flicked her eyes up to Asami's own as though asking for permission and Asami lifted the ball up, cradled in her palms.

Wordlessly, Korra carefully took the soul into her palms and stared at it in wonder and fascination.

And she suddenly understood why Asami had started referring to their child as a girl: holding her in the palm of her hands, Korra could somehow tell that indeed, the baby Asami was carrying was in fact going to be a girl; their daughter.

_'My... my *daughter*.'_

A wondrous smile came onto Korra's face as a marvelous warm feeling spread out from her heart through her entire body, erasing all the aches and pains and weariness that the horrific ordeal of the last few hours had been weighing on her physically and emotionally. She lifted her daughter's soul up to eye level to gaze at it more intently. "... I can feel her heart beat." She murmured, dazed.

Asami nodded, her eyebrows crinkling together like she wanted to cry. "Yeah..." She laid her head back down on Korra's shoulder and watched as her girlfriend brushed her thumbs over the glowing ball of light. "Do you think you can get her back inside her body?" Asami asked, her voice small and tiny. "I... I don't know if I trust some random stork to do it right."

Korra's eyes widened as she gave Asami a startled look. "Asami, I don't know if I..." But even as Korra started to give her reservations, Asami's eyebrows crinkled together some more in pleading and Korra realized in her heart that she probably could do it; she had spirit-bended several times before, though not quite exactly like this.

Swallowing nervously, Korra got up onto her knees and faced Asami, taking a deep breath as she went into the Avatar State once more. As she did so, her daughter's soul glowed a little brighter in acknowledgement of the special nature of her mother's bending and suspended in the air in waiting as Korra slowly moved her arms away and maneuvered them in a slow and wide circle, executing those gracefully fluid movements required to commune with the spirit in front of her and bend it to her will. Once she'd resonated with her unborn daughter's spirit, she gently pushed the ball of light towards Asami's tummy and Asami gave a sigh of relief as the soul of their unborn child finally disappeared back into her womb.

Korra slowly blinked out of the Avatar State and gave Asami a worried look, her girlfriend's eyes still closed as she put her hands over her abdomen. "Asami?" Korra asked softly. "Are you okay?"

"Oh!" Suddenly, Asami's eyes popped wide opened and her mouth dropped open in shock. She looked down at her own tummy, her fingers splayed wide over it.

"Asami?!" Korra blurted, suddenly frantic. "What's wrong?!"

Asami blinked a few more times as she continued to stared at herself before her mouth slowly turned from an 'o' of surprise into a wide smile even as her eyes softened in fond understanding and she looked over at Korra, a very pleased expression on her face. "I... I think I just felt her move."

"What?! Really?! Can I see? Isn't it a little too soon for that?" Unable to keep the excitement from her face, Korra bent down to put her ear up to Asami's tummy and stayed very still for several moments. She couldn't help but frown in disappointment when she detected nothing.

"Geez, not a very appreciative little scamp, is she?" Korra grumped, sitting back up. She put a hand on her own lower abdomen. "I sure hope you're not as much of a trouble maker as your sister is."

* * *

><p>AN: And thaaaaat should be the end of this arc! =_=;; For those of you who feel like wiki'ing Meng Po, maybe you can figure out why I wanted to go down this path and accidentally scared the pants off of half of you for the last couple of chapters (which, again, I profusely apologize for!)

As a heads up, the next chapter may be a few days in the coming as I've got to deal with some RL stuff in the meanwhile. My apologies to those of you who have been leaving me reviews on FFnet! I haven't had a chance to reply to the last few chapters worth of reviews, but I will get to you! Thank you! XD


	25. Last Time I Use This Joke I Promise

_'Holy-!'_ Korra gasped as the freezing air hit her lungs as soon as she stepped out of the portal. Her first instinct was to quickly wrap her arms around Asami, hearing her girlfriend give her own sharp inhale of shock at the intense change in climate from the balmy-temperate warmth of the Spirit World to the extreme cold of the South Pole. They were in completely inappropriate clothing, their winter parkas having been left in Pepper's saddle with the rest of their supplies. Korra quickly bended a pocket of fire-warmed air around the both of them to protect them from the extreme temperature, but it was still frikkin' cold.

It was probably a good idea that they had left the Spirit World via the South-Pole spirit portal when they did; any later and Tonraq would have caused an international incident by invaded the spirit realm with half of the Southern Water Tribe's armed forces.

As it was, as Korra walked out from the portal with Asami, the first person she saw was her father at the front of a contingent of water tribe soldiers with a grim expression of determination on his face.

Korra blinked. "Dad?" She called tentatively.

"Korra!" Tonraq cried, recognizing his daughter and immediately rushing forward. Even as he sprinted forward, he ripped his winter parka off his body, taking it off and leaving him in a wool inner-layer of clothing in time to fling his outer jacket over both of Korra and Asami's shoulders as he slowed to approach them, his massive frame so large that the jacket fit over both of them comfortably enough as they squeezed together.

"Dad!" Relief flooded through her system to see her father and Korra released her air bending to give her father a hug, the jacket they were sharing meaning that Asami also found herself pressed up against Tonraq's barrel of a chest, a little bit of an awkwardly embarrassed but shyly pleased smile on her face as Tonraq wrapped his own massive arms around both Korra and Asami, swallowing the both of them up into a bear hug. "It's okay, Dad. It's okay. Asami's fine. I'm fine. Everyone's fine. Everything's going to be okay."

Tonraq didn't let go for a while, too swept up in relief to unhand his daughter until one of his soldiers came up to him with a warm cloak and urged him to put it on; for all of the Southern Water Tribe's Chieftain's good health and hot-bloodedness, the weather at the South Pole still wasn't something to be trifled with after all.

"What happened?" Tonraq finally asked, his brow knit with concern as he looked from Korra to Asami and then back again. "Tenzin said you two were attacked by a spirit? What did it want?"

Korra blinked a few times and traded a stupefied look with her girlfriend which Asami returned with a little bit of a helpless shrug. Before the trip, they had mused at length as to how best to break the news of their relationship and its unusual... advancements... to Korra's parents, and tried to figure out exactly how the conversation would probably end up going, where they might encounter potential problems, how best to guide Korra's parents along, etc. Korra had pictured this conversation going a dozen different ways but none of the scenarios she had played out in her head had even remotely considered the possibility of a raven-spirit making off with their baby girl's soul in error.

The significance of the look his daughter was trading with her 'friend' was not lost on the Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe and Tonraq looked from Korra to Asami and then back again once more, a look of confusion in his eyes before he quirked one of his eyebrows. "Korra? What's going on?"

"Uh..." The look Korra was giving her father looked suspiciously similar to one she had given him when she was 7 and he had returned home to see the dining room table half scorched, half frozen and completely ripped apart. "How much did Tenzin tell you about... about what's happened?" Korra asked very slowly, a half-smile / half-cringe on her face.

"Evidently not nearly enough," Tonraq replied cryptically, folding his arms across his chest even as he gave his daughter - and the pretty young woman he suddenly realized she was currently holding pretty intimately against her - a look of appraisal. "I take it that this has something to do with what you wanted to talk to your mother and I about?"

Korra's face couldn't have gotten more sheepish if she'd baa'd. "Uh, yeah..."

"Hmm." Tonraq continued to watch his daughter squirm with one eyebrow raised but even as she continued to shift uncomfortably under his gaze, from out of nowhere a crooked smile came to his face, softening his expression exponentially, while more than just a hint of amusement lighted in his eyes.

Relief flooded through Korra's heart as she watched her father turn his gaze over onto her girlfriend and saw that the fondness in his eyes remained unchanged. If anything, they grew even more welcoming, and Korra watched as Asami smiled shyly back at her father, dipping her head lower for a moment in a gesture of respect before meeting his laughing eyes with her light-green own.

Tonraq's smile was broad as he reached out and put a warm hand on each of Korra and Asami's shoulders. "Then let's get back to the palace to your mother so you don't have to repeat yourself. Something tells me we have a lot to talk about."

And as her father said this with more than just a hint that he knew more than he was letting on, Korra felt a nervous weight lift cleanly off her shoulders. "Thanks, Dad."

"Korra! Asami!"

Hearing her name, Korra looked over and saw her airbending master quickly approaching them, his entire family right with him.

"Thank goodness you're alright." Tenzin looked like he wanted to pull the both of them into a hug of his own, except that his children beat him to the punch and Jinora, Ikki, Meelo and Rohan all ran head long into Korra and Asami, throwing their arms around them as they gave cries of relief, the girls clinging to Korra, while the boys went after Asami.

"Korra!"

"Asami!"

Jinora buried her face into Korra's shoulder and squeezed her tight. "I followed you two," she said, her eyebrows crinkled when she finally unhanded her. "I projected my spirit after you two and I saw the fight with the dark-spirit before the ground swallowed you both up! Korra, what happened? What was all that about?"

"It's a bit of a long story," Korra confessed, as the kids finally unhanded them. Bumi came by with her's and Asami's jackets and Korra gave the old air bender a grateful smile as they quickly got back into their own jackets. "We can tell you on the way back."

Rohan pushed his hands against Asami's stomach urgently. "Is the baby okay?" He asked insistently.

Tonraq tripped on an invisible crack in the ice and face-planted mightily into the ground.

Everyone sweatdropped and Korra shot Tenzin a look that clearly asked, _'you mean you didn't tell him?!'_ to which Tenzin replied with a helpless shrug and an awkward expression that answered, _'oh hell no! That's *your* job!'_

"Is he?" Rohan insisted again, tugging on Asami's jacket, worry all over his young face.

"Um," Asami's eyebrows crinkled awkwardly and she gave Korra a silent plea for help, but truth be told, the anxious expressions the entire air family was wearing made it obvious that they were all dying to know and unsure of how to ask the potentially delicate question. So, Asami mustered up her courage, even as her eyes caught Tonraq's bewildered own in apology that these were the circumstances under which he would first learn of his grandchild's existence, before turning her eyes back onto little Rohan and answering him. "She's fine, Sweetie. She's fine. Korra and I figured out that our baby is a girl and we managed to rescue her soul from the raven spirits who took her because of a..." Asami's face darkened a little bit before she schooled her expression, "a misunderstanding. We talked to King Enma about it and then Korra put her soul back where it belonged."

"In your tummy?" Rohan put his hands on Asami's belly again. "Like the way Korra put her there in the first place?"

Tonraq's eyes grew to cover over 78% of his face and Korra worried that her they might even fall right out of his head.

Asami sweatdropped. "Uh... not quite, but close enough."

"How are you feeling?" Kya appeared at Asami's side and gently grasped her arm. "Should we do a quick checkup just in case?"

But while Asami could understanding the master healer's concerns, she instinctively put a hand on her lower abdomen, feeling irrationally protectively of the child they had just fought so desperately to keep. "I think we can probably wait until we get to the palace." Asami finally said softly.

Kya nodded in consent, her eyes softening in understanding of Asami's complicated feelings.

And then they all started off, still chatting animatedly amongst themselves until Korra realized her father was not with the rest of the group and turned around to see that her father hadn't moved from where he was standing, still stunned. She hurried back to him and waved her hand in front of his face. "Uh, Dad?"

That snapped Tonraq out of it and the Chieftain blinked in confusion at his only daughter. And then his face grew serious as he hunched over conspiratorially and clapped his hands on his daughter's shoulders."Korra, you're... you're seeing Asami, right?" He blurted in hushed tones. "I mean, your mother and I pretty much figured that that _had_ to be what it was you wanted to tell us about that was important enough for you to come all the way back home to talk to us in person. But did I just hear that right? Asami's... Asami's _pregnant?_" His brow crinkled. "And somehow it sounds like... it's, er, she's... _yours_?"

Korra sweatdropped. Her father had pieced that all together remarkably well, all things considered. She rubbed the back of her head, unable to help but feel a little guilty that this was ultimately how her father would find out about it all.

_'So much for the speeches we've rehersed!'_

"Um, well, I guess that's the short of it in a single sentence: Asami and I are together and the baby she's carrying is _mine_." Korra was careful to put extra emphasis on the possessive, and she looked her father firmly in the eyes as she said it so that he would not miss the importance of that distinction. On the spur of the moment, she decided it was probably best to not tell her father about the one in her own womb yet. "But, um, could we maybe wait until Mom's here so that we can give the both of you the full story at the same time?"

"Huh." His suspicions confirmed, Tonraq released Korra's shoulders and stood upright, an utterly dazed expression on his face. After a while, he nodded. "Yeah, let's go get your mother. I think I might need her on hand to help refresh my understanding on how the buffalo-birds and butter-fly bees are supposed to work." He gave her a weak smile. "Because things seem to have... changed a little... since your mother and I had you."

Korra couldn't help but smile impishly, suddenly remembering the grief her loved ones in Republic City had given her so many weeks ago. "Well, you see, Dad, in this day and age, when a girl and a girl really love each other-"

Tonraq stopped Korra from continuing that sentence by head-locking her under an armpit and ruffling her hair. "Stop that right now, young lady. I will listen to my wife, but I will not suffer my own daughter trying to give an updated version of The Talk."


	26. Dreams

Asami stared at the cup of tea in her hands in idly, distracted fascination. For the life of her, she could not remember the circumstances that had led to the tea appearing in her hands. And though she could see the steam rising from the liquid's surface, suggesting that the tea had to be hot, perhaps freshly poured, she couldn't really feel any of the drink's heat in her palm of her hands at all, nor was there any evidence of a teapot around anywhere.

_'__That's strange...'_ Asami thought, her mind feeling thick and cloudy with a jumble of thoughts, as though she were walking through water. She looked up from the drink she was evidently nursing in her lap and saw that she had was sitting on a stone stool, one of four arranged around a stone table inlaid with impressive carving detail. The stone table was in the middle of an immaculately cared for and beautiful garden and she herself was wearing the pink nightgown she remembered going to sleep in earlier.

_'__How...?'_ Asami blinked slowly, awe coming over her as she found herself mesmerized by her surroundings. _'How did I get here? Where am I?'_

The last thing Asami remembered was changing into her sleepwear and slipping into bed in Korra's old bedroom at the Palace of the Chieftain after they had conversed with Korra's parents well into the night. The fur of the heavy pelts the Southern Water Tribe favored to use for bedding had felt unfamiliar against her skin, but the warmth of Korra's body against her back and the weight of Korra's arm wrapped around her waist was more than familiar and comforting enough to lull Asami to sleep.

Which could only mean that Asami was dreaming.

_'Unless,'_ some rational part of Asami's mind suggested (the quirky part of her brain that usually tended to manifest itself in outside-of-the-box engineering solutions), _'I've somehow slept my way into the Spirit World...?' _

Which, once upon a time, she would not have though possible, as Asami was many things but spiritual and meditative were not really her traits, but after the day's harrowing business, perhaps she had become closer to the spirits in some way.

"Korra?" Asami hesitantly called out. "Korra, are you there?"

When Asami got no response, she frowned and tried again. "Is anyone there? Hello? Spirits?"

When she still got no answer, Asami decided she was probably dreaming; in the Spirit World, dozens of curious spirits would have come forth to inspect the oddity that was a human in their midst by now.

_'So then,_' Asami rationalized, _'this is probably, a dream.' _

But though Asami had experienced lucid dreaming before in that funny space between being asleep and awake, dreaming had never felt quite like this before.

Looking around, Asami took in her surroundings and tried to figure out what it was she dreaming about.

She was in what seemed like a very traditional Fire Nation styled garden. The garden was so large that the ornately roofed brick and plaster walls that surrounded it stretched into the distance and she couldn't quite see where they ended. Behind her, Asami could see a series of pagodas and covered walkways with the red roofs of many more traditional Fire Nation buildings visible behind that. A small stream with an elegantly decorative bridge that fed into a tranquil pond meandered across the garden. Several turtle-ducks leisurely swam in that pond lined by smooth flat rocks dotted with water reeds. The garden also featured several perfect rock arrangements, painstakingly placed to reflect the utmost pinnacle of zen, and many magnificently aged sakura trees dotted the garden as well, their blossoms in bloom, an odd smattering of pink petals strewned beneath the manicured branches.

In short, the garden was downright imperial in its majesty, making even the modern elegance of the ones that surrounded Sato Estates seem pedestrian in comparison.

It was also a garden Asami was quite certain she'd never experienced before; despite being of Fire Nation heritage, she had never been to the country before, so what would have caused her to dream of it in such detailed splendor? She'd never even set foot in such a place before!

"Well, not in this lifetime anyway."

Startled by the sound of the unexpected voice, Asami turned her head and saw a girl in her late teens dressed in turn-of-the-century gold trimmed, red and black fire nation armor leaning casually against a beautifully blossoming sakura tree, her arms crossed over her chest. She definitely hadn't been there before when Asami had first noticed the tree and there was absolutely no clue as to where she had come from; it was as though she had appeared from the thin of the air itself.

Most of the girl's hair was pulled up into a topknot style as Asami had seen in old paintings of imperial Fire-Nation military personnel, save for long bangs parted in the centre of her forehead that framed her face. She was beautiful by classic Fire Nation standards, but the wholly contemptuous smirk she wore on her face gave her a very hard and cruel edge and she gazed at Asami with golden eyes razor sharp with appraisal.

Asami got the distinct impression that this girl was judging her and was finding her character lacking in some way but before she could say anything to her, the girl spoke first.

"Throwing yourself off the back of a flying monster to save the soul of your unborn child without a plan for landing is short-sighted, suicidal, and just plain _stupid_. Noble short-sighted suicidal stupidity to be sure, but stupidity none the less." And after the girl said this, she looked away from Asami and exhaled noisily through her nose.

Despite the harshness in her words however, Asami got the distinct impression that the teenager was, somehow, not entirely un-pleased with her, but that still didn't excuse the girl's rudeness and Asami frowned. Immediately, Asami's guard went up and she reactively put her hand on her abdomen, still feeling irrationally anxious from that afternoon. "I'm sorry, but do I know you?"

For some reason her question clearly displeased the girl and the teen's eyes widened in outrage as she glared at Asami, the pout on her face taking on more than just a bite of irritation. For a moment, the teen even looked a little bit unhinged and it seemed like she was ready to spit out some very harsh words at Asami but in the end, ultimately, the girl did not. It took her a while to calm down, but eventually, the snarl on her face calmed into an intense frown instead. She turned her nose up at Asami and looked away, scowling. "Figures you'd forget all about me. Again." The girl muttered darkly, even as she pushed herself away from the sakura tree she had been leaning against and stalked angrily away.

"Wait!" Asami felt her heart do strange flip-flops in her chest and she lept to her feet, reaching out for the girl, not noticing at all how her teacup vanished as soon as she stopped focusing any attention on it.

And while Asami suspected she had been dreaming before, now she realized she most definitely was as the entire world seemed to change itself to her will, allowing her to cross the distance between herself and the retreating girl in an instant. Asami reached out and found herself grasping the girl's wrist without any recollection of how she made it to her.

"Let go!" The girl snarled, snatching her arm back viciously and then lashing out in a series of blindingly fast strikes as she launched an offensive against Asami.

Asami's eyes went wide and she reacted on instinct, avoiding or blocking each strike as quickly as the girl was sending them, twisting her head one way to avoid fingers stabbed at her eyes, blocking an open palmed slice meant for her neck, twisting around to sweep the girl's legs out from under her and missing by mere millimetres as the girl jumped.

They traded strikes for several more minutes, though the follow up fighting lacked the intensity of those first few moves and Asami could tell that the anger and intent-to-do-harm in the girl's first few moves had bleed out into more controlled strikes meant to gauge and test. And as the girl tested her, so too did Asami gauge back, easily placing the girl's style as a very high calibre of Fire Nation martial art, and found herself switching to the styles of self-defense her teachers had drilled into her head as most efficient to counteract this one.

Many of the girl's strikes were definitely fire bending moves but for whatever reason, the girl did not summon any flames with her strikes, and Asami wondered if this wasn't because, like visiting the spirit world in spirit form, bending couldn't happen in dreams.

"Not entirely correct," the girl replied coolly, even as she tried for a leg sweep. "It is only because _you_ are a non-bender that even your dreamscape appears to hold this limitation."

Asami's eyes widened even as she moved out of the leg sweep's range and blocked another stab at her face. _'Can you... hear my thoughts?' _

The girl rolled her eyes. "What do you think? This is _your_ dream. I don't make the rules here."

Not liking the idea that her thoughts and feelings were on full display, Asami frowned and decided to speak out loud to the girl. "Well, if _that's_ the case..." Asami willed for their fighting to stop and the fight ended promptly enough. They ended in a stalemate, Asami holding onto one of the girl's arms even as she redirected the punch from her other arm away while simultaneously using her left leg to block away the majority of the force in the girl's kick.

They held their stalemate pose for a while, the girl's golden eyes boring intensely into Asami's own while Asami simply held her gaze with firm wordlessness.

A thousand thoughts ran through Asami's mind but the chief one rose easily enough to the forefront. "Who _are_ you?" Asami repeated her question.

The girl's eyes narrowed again but she didn't go off the deep end this time.

But unfortunately, before she could open her mouth to speak, suddenly, what could only be described as a giant ripple appeared in the middle of the air in between them and in surprise, they both jumped back.

"What's going on?" Asami asked as she watched those ripples in the air grow and stretch out all around them, distorting their environs.

As Asami watched, the very edges of the garden started to disintegrate into darkness, even as the ripples in the air in front of her continued to grow and at the same time, that strange feeling of heaviness and fogginess in her mind grew stronger, as though she were submerged in molasses.

Flickers of another scene danced across her eyes, ghostly images of a darkened bedroom, overlaid over the garden.

The teenager appeared completely unperturbed by any of this and simply straightened up, her head held proudly high, putting her hands behind her back in a military at-ease stance. "Hmph. I guess that's all the time we have for now." She sniffed icily and turned away from Asami, her hands still folded at the small of her back, her head held proudly high. "You might not be a bender but at least your reflexes are halfway decent. I suppose you won't be a _complete_ embarrassment."

And then the girl gave Asami one last petulant smirk over her shoulder and started to stride away from her into the garden which had rapidly disintegrated into darkness by this point.

"Wait!" Asami cried, trying to hurry after the girl, but finding her limbs unresponsive, as though there was a weight around her shoulder, pinning her down. "Who _are_ you?"

Yet even though these words left her lips, there was no doubt left in Asami's mind as to who the girl could only be.

The girl didn't turn around but Asami could practically hear her rolling her eyes. "Oh come _on_. Like you haven't figure that one out for yourself already. Just do me a favor and don't name me after anything stupid."

But Asami could not confirm her suspicions as the entirely of her dreamscape faded away into nothing as she found herself waking up.


	27. And Smut!

WARNING: This chapter is rated M for gratuitous sexy times. Why? I don't know. Muse-chan's just feeling randy I guess; maybe it was something she ate last night. But I kinda get the impression most of you won't mind too much. ;)

And for those of you who do, um, maybe just skip down to the last scene? =P

* * *

><p>It was the tantalizing sensation of Korra's lips against the back of her neck that caused the dream to evaporate from Asami's mind's eye, even as her physical eyes fluttered open, needing a moment to adjust to the darkness of the bedroom as the fog of sleep slowly lifted from her mind.<p>

Asami didn't move for a moment, except to let a drowsy smile come onto her face as she felt Korra's lips meander from her neck down to her shoulder as her lover nuzzled her face against her hair, breathing in her scent and savoring it.

The last traces of her strange dream disappeared into the recesses of her mind, largely forgotten, victim of that tumultuous transition between sleeping and awake as was the fate of most dreams, leaving behind only a soft lingering sensation of nostalgia in Asami's heart that faded quickly enough into entirely different feelings of love and affection, affected, no doubt, by Korra's tender ministrations.

It was the middle of the night and they must have slept for at least a few hours, but the bedroom was not entirely dark as the stars and the moon shone their soft white-blue light in through the crack in the curtain that covered the door to the balcony.

Asami blinked her eyes a few times before closing them again, the smile on her face getting a little bigger as she let herself enjoy the sensation of Korra's fingertips slowly meandering down her obliges, dipping down over her hip to cup her lower abdomen, caressing it gently before those fingers, roughly callused from so many years of bending, slid back up over Asami's stomach, leaving delightful shivers in their wake. Then Korra lightly grasped at one of Asami's breasts, unable to keep her thumb from drawing a slow teasing circle around the nipple that crowned it, drawing a sigh from Asami's lips and a light fluttering in her loins before that hand continued its journey upwards, looking for one of Asami's own tucked under her pillow. Korra threaded their fingers together even as she gave Asami a squeeze, and another nibble on her shoulder.

"Are you awake?" Korra asked tentatively, her voice soft and delicate just in case her lover was not.

"Mm." Asami murmured, turning onto her back to give her girlfriend a drowsy smile and a soft peck on the lips. In the pale light of the moon, Asami could see Korra's eyes soften into infinite fondness and she reached up to brush the lock of hair that had fallen into Korra's eyes away, tucking it behind one of Korra's ears.

And Korra's eyebrows crinkled, making her look a little vulnerable even as her eyes softened. "Asami? Can we...?"

There was a curious timbre of something... something _off_ in her girlfriend's voice, but Asami couldn't quite place what that something was. It wasn't entirely usual for Korra to be asking for intimacy this way – like some part of her might have actually worried that Asami would rebuff her – and Asami tilted her head to the side curiously, wondering what might have brought this on. But the look in Korra's eyes let her know that now might not be the best time to get into it so Asami simply gave Korra a smile meant to be encouraging and nodded her silent approval.

Exhaling a breath of relief through her nose, Korra closed her eyes and dipped down to kiss Asami tenderly, slipping her tongue out to urge Asami's lips open and partake of her. The kiss started off slow and gentle but quickly grew deeper and needy, turning their breaths into gasps, and Korra pushed Asami deeper into the bedding as she arranged herself over top of her lover, propping herself up with her elbows. Asami shifted a little under Korra's frame, mindful of not putting too much weight on either of their lower bodies for safety and comfort's sake, even though neither of them were far enough along in their pregnancies to really have to worry about accidentally disturbing the fetuses, and Korra's mouth wandered away from Asami's own to her neck and throat, suckling and nibbling hard enough to ensure marks would be left there for all the world to see in the morning.

Asami snaked her own hands under Korra's arms and under her tank top, sliding up underneath the clothing so that she could feel the warm skin of Korra's back directly, delighting, as she always did, in the sensation of the firmness of her girlfriend's lithe muscles against the flat of her palms as she dragged her fingers down them.

"Hey," Asami chuckled with mock reproach, even as she tilted her head up to give Korra more of her neck to claim, wantonly sending out entirely mixed signals. "You wanna be a little more careful with the hickies? We've still got to face everyone in the morning you know."

Korra made a disagreeable noise against Asami's skin like she frankly didn't give a damn what anybody thought thank you very much and Asami gave another small exasperation tinged laugh before that sound turned into a bit of a moan as Korra sucked _just so_ at that spot on Asami's neck just under her ear that never failed to drive her batty with arousal.

Asami felt Korra's whole body tense up in excitement as the sound of the moan that had escaped her lips prompted the sensation of urgency she knew her lover was already feeling to bubbled up to almost frenetic levels inside her before exploding into a virtual firework of ardour. A groan of need escaped from the back of Korra's throat as her kisses became many times harder and faster and more urgent, her tongue pushing needily into Asami's own mouth to claim it. The gentle caress of Asami's breasts through the fabric of the nightgown turned into a definite squeeze even as she firmly played her thumb against that sensitive tip, drawing another gasp from Asami, before she blindly groped downwards, her fingers clenching at the material of Asami's nightgown as she tried to get rid of this thing that was daring to separate her hands from Asami's body.

But the nightgown refused to go away, or rather, couldn't really leave since Korra was largely lying on top of Asami at the moment, trapping it in place and in the end, after fumbling with it for several moments, Korra realized she had to spare the nightgown more than a quarter of her attention to properly get rid of it and she gave a grunt of displeasure as she realized she'd have to remove herself from Asami's person to accomplish that. Impatiently, Korra sat up before grabbing the offending nightie by its collar and then tearing it apart into two, ripping the fabric right down the front of the sleepwear to Asami's waist.

"Korra!" Asami's eyes went a little wide at this display of aggression, any lingering sleepiness evaporating from her eyes as she looked down at herself, her stomach and breasts exposed, nipples hardened from the sudden coolness of the night air as much as from Korra's teasing. Her mouth dropped open as several wildly different emotions coursed through her body including surprise and shock and disbelief and excitement and exhilaration and out and out _lust_ and they were all so jumbled together that Asami could barely tell which way was up and which way was down much less what it was she was feeling.

For a moment, Asami wasn't able to say anything else at all; she just stared at Korra with a dumbstruck expression on her face.

"Uh." For her part, Korra was still holding the fabric in her hands with a startled and bewildered expression in her own eyes like she couldn't believe what had happened and how shoddily this garment was made to just come apart in her hands so (it must have been a Cabbage Corp product as opposed to something Future industries put together). And then Korra turned her face to look at Asami and she blinked dumbly before she shot Asami that crooked smile of hers, the hormone-charged ardour that had temporarily overridden her senses shriveling into sheepishness. "Oops?"

They continued to stare at each other for a little while before a single emotion won out over all the rest of the tangle inside of Asami, culminating into a bodily pang of sudden _need_ between her legs and an almost feral grin came onto her face as she practically lunged at Korra, tackling her backwards and off the bed.

It was cold away from the warmth of the bed, and Asami gave a yelp of discomfort as goosebumps raised all over her as her bare skin touched the cold floor, her poor nightie ripped clean apart and pulled away. Korra couldn't stop herself from laughing as she found the colder temperature perfectly to her liking, though she still considerately rolled them off the bare floor and onto a fur-skinned rug, gazing down at Asami with affection in her eyes as Asami shivered for a little while.

So Korra valiantly pressed down into Asami to warm her up, running her hands down Asami's flanks and back up her breasts, laying herself overtop of her lover, pressing the weight of her body up in between Asami's legs and soon Asami was shivering for an entirely different reason that had nothing to do with the cold and everything to do with the long and wet lick that Korra dragged down the middle of her body from collar bone to belly button and down into her groin.

A strangled cry left Asami's lips as Korra kissed her way down into her sex, swirling her tongue against her clit, each pass sending a jolt of pleasure rushing through Asami's limbs, spinning her higher and higher up towards ecstasy. Asami found herself with her arms over her head, her hands blinding reaching upwards for purchase - something, anything at all, and she managed to find the edge of one of the covers on the bed. And when Korra started suckling that sensitive bundle of nerves, Asami involuntarily jolted and pulled the cover right off the bed and over top of them, tangling them up quite thoroughly.

The next few moments were a little fuzzy for Asami, as, in her heady arousal, she couldn't quite follow the sequence of events that led to them doffing the covers from their persons, nor was she quite able to figure out how she managed to get all of Korra's clothes off, or her own underwear for that matter. It was also beyond Asami's comprehension when Korra had ended up pulling the both of them upright, nor when she had ended up sitting in her girlfriend's lap, Korra behind her and nibbling at her neck even as she played with her sensitive breasts with one hand, while her other one was curved over her hip to slip between Asami's legs to service her sex, moist and receptive and almost _aching_ with need for touch.

Asami reached backwards over her head to grab Korra's hair, pulling her lover's face towards her so that she could give her a hard kiss over her shoulder. She couldn't stop herself from moaning into Korra's mouth as she felt something wonderfully, wonderfully _warm_ enter into her, even as an equally hot pressure was applied and grinded against that sensitive bundle of nerves just over top of her entrance, driving all semblance of thought right out of Asami's head, leaving behind only marvelous intensity and sensation.

"K-Korra!" Asami uttered throatily, not quite able to see straight as she lolled her head backwards onto one of her lover's shoulders, finding herself soon on the cusp of climax. Nothing else seemed to exist in the universe except for that amazing warmth stroking back and forth into her, the heat making all the difference as it seemed to fill her very core, and spread forth through the rest of her body in intoxicating headiness and it was all Asami could do to reach down with trembling hands to try to figure out what that something was. "W-what are you d...!"

And Asami's voice trailed off in utter disbelief, her eyes opening in shock and her mind a little bit blown to discover that it was simply her lover's fingers inside of her, the hilt of her palm grinding so compellingly against her clit, except that somehow her lover's extremities were marvelously, _marvelously_ hot, as though she were... as though she were...

Korra smirked, redoubling her efforts and bringing her thumb, as hot as the rest of her, into play.

"! ! ! !" Asami turned bright red and she buried her face into the Korra's neck in sudden embarrassment as she realized that her lover was indeed using a low level fire bending warming technique in an _entirely_ inappropriate way - that was, turning her hands into an entirely other category of pleasure inducing instrument.

Asami didn't last much longer under Korra's ministrations. She found her resolve quickly melted away as her climax came upon in almost explosive intensity, causing her to cry out loudly, a mighty spasm rippling through her entire body, leaving her dazed and seeing incredible multicolored stars.

* * *

><p>By the time Asami was able to recover from her climax and finish taking her turn with Korra, the morning sun was starting to peek out shyly from over the horizon at the South Pole. (It was probably for the best that the time lag between the Southern Water Tribe and Republic City worked out in their favor, so that they weren't all that sleepy despite staying up most of the night, though certain muscles would probably be sore for the rest of the day.)<p>

Too mellow to make their way back into the bed (which was narrow enough that Korra might have fallen out of it even if they did make use of it anyway), they laid on the floor on top of the fur skin rug, both of them still breathing deeply from their lovemaking, snuggled up in each other's arms and cuddled under the covers. Asami pillowed her head against the crook of Korra's shoulder while Korra supported her own head on her other forearm.

"... that was the only nightgown I brought with me," Asami noted idly. "Am I going to have to sleep in the nude for the rest of this trip?"

"Sounds like a great plan to me. I can warm you up again if you get cold." Korra offered helpfully.

Asami rolled her eyes.

They laid in comfortable silence for a moment longer before Asami remembered the unusual expression her lover had worn before they had started her lovemaking, and she looked up curiously at Korra to note that, indeed, that thoughtful expression had come back onto Korra's face once more.

"So... what brought that on?" Asami finally asked quietly as she drew a languid circle on Korra's chest. Lovely as the sex had been, it had also been... different, and she had a feeling it hadn't all just been hormone driven, though that probably did provide a good deal of the explanation. She just couldn't shake the feeling that she had sensed a hint of something almost akin to desperation buried in the midst of Korra's urgency, as though something had been weighing on her lover's mind as they had reaffirmed their affections for each other physically.

Korra remained quiet for a while, before Asami felt her lover's chest rise and slowly fall as she took a deep breath meant to calm. She felt Korra shift a little bit and felt a hint of pressure on the top of her head and realized that Korra must have kissed her there.

Asami drew herself upwards so she could return the favor with a peck on Korra's cheek, but also mostly so that she could look into her lover's eyes. And when Korra returned her gaze, Asami was a little surprised to see vulnerability lurking clearly in the depths of those baby blues. Frowning, she touched Korra's other cheek in gentle comfort with her hand. "Korra?"

Korra sighed again and covered Asami's hand with her own, turning her face to kiss her fingertips. "You scared the living daylights out of me yesterday." She whispered, a hint of hurt in her voice. "When you jumped from that spirit's back, I thought I was going to lose you."

Guilt quickly flared in Asami's heart as she realized just how bad of a scare she'd given her lover. "Oh, Korra, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that to you." Her eyebrows crinkled and Asami hurried to give Korra several sweet kisses of apology. "But I just... I couldn't let her go, Korra. I couldn't. When I saw her falling, I just... it didn't matter at all what happened to me; I just couldn't lose anyone else anymore." Asami's voice got small. "Wouldn't you have done the same?"

Korra sighed heavily as she reluctantly nodded her head, the look of resignation on her face showing that she completely understood Asami's sentiments though she was far from liking it.

And Asami had to admit that the years of loneliness... had been taxing on her.

With the passing of her father earlier in the year, Asami no longer had any blood relation left to her, no kinsmen left in the world at all, but in truth, the loneliness had started to set in far earlier than that, as in some ways, she had already lost her father three years before he died, when Hiroshi Sato had gone to prison for his crimes. Then, when the horrific injuries that Korra had sustained at the hands of the Red Lotus took her away for three years to heal, and the rest of their friends had also gone away, all of them needing to do their part in helping the world deal with its crisis's, this had left Asami effectively alone and cut off from anyone who may have been a pillar of strength for her, leaving behind only Future Industries as the only thing she could find solace in. And though Asami was immensely grateful for the thoughtfulness of her servants and staff for propping her up through the tough times, she was overjoyed at the idea of having a real family again.

So Asami had completely lost her mind when she had thought that she might lose the child she was carrying, just as much as she suspected she would lose it if anything were to happen to Korra or the child she was carrying as well.

She could not tolerate the thought of anything happening to her loved ones, and if she had to die to protect them, then so be it.

This... really wasn't very healthy thinking at all, Asami knew, but she couldn't help herself, and she realized in a slow, dawning epiphany in her heart, that if this were to happen again, then she would absolutely do the same thing all over again.

And Asami knew as she continued to look into Korra's eyes, that her girlfriend knew she would.

They continued to look at each other in silent appraisal for a moment, before Korra sighed softly, and reached up to cup a hand around Asami's cheek. "I get it, Asami. I do." Korra said softly. "But I... I still need you to realize something."

Without further explanation, Korra sat up and unexpectedly scooped Asami up into a carry, placing her on the edge of the bed before draping the blankets over her shoulders so she wouldn't get cold in the cool night air, not seeming to mind her own nakedness one bit. She walked over to the dresser where they'd stored their day clothes and rummaged around inside for something before evidently finding it and returning to Asami's side.

Asami's eyes grew really, really wide as she felt her heart suddenly leap into overdrive as it got an inkling of what it was Korra was about to do when she knelt down on the floor by the bed in front of her.

"This isn't the way I wanted to do this," Korra confessed, the corners of her eyes crinkling in shame. "I wanted to take the time to do this right. We haven't been together for very long, so I thought I needed to wait a while because I thought you'd take me more seriously if I did. I even thought about waiting until after the babies were born so that you wouldn't think that I was asking you this out of a sense of obligation or anything like that. I wanted to find the perfect stone and I wanted to carve it into the perfect pendant and I wanted to make it into the perfect betrothal necklace for you because you deserve nothing less, but I'm afraid I can't anymore. I can't wait to do any of those things anymore because I can't let you run around putting your life in danger like you don't care about what happens to you because you don't just belong to yourself anymore, Asami, you absolutely _don't_. You... you belong to _me,_ Asami. Like I belong to you."

Korra took Asami's hands into her own and held them tightly, and Asami felt her girlfriend slide something small and hard and sooth into her palms.

"Asami Sato, you are already the love of my life and the mother of my children. Will you also please do me the honor of becoming my wife, and allowing me to be yours?"

Asami stared deeply into Korra's eyes, even as she felt her whole body start to tremble. Swallowing back the lump that suddenly came to her throat, Asami looked down at the crystalized green stone that Korra had slipped into her hands and recognized it to be the leaf - the gift - from the Tree of Time.

And Asami couldn't quite keep her voice from breaking, couldn't quite keep those tears at the corners of her eyes from gathering and falling as emotion threatened to overwhelm her as the soft, breathless, noise of affirmation left her lips and she wrapped her arms around Korra's neck, pulling close her girlfriend, her lover, her soon-to-be-_wife_, and sealing her answer off with a kiss.

* * *

><p>AN: The idea that the stone Korra uses to propose to Asami with should be green rather than blue as SWT culture seems to support is inspired from a comment left by Rayne Maranochi on this story on ffnet. Thanks, R! ^_^ While I ultimately decided not to go with jade stone, I thought this solution was sort of still in the spirit of your idea so I thought a shout-out should probably be warranted here.)


	28. And Sap!

"G'morning, Mom, Dad." Korra greeted her parents as she slid into a chair at the breakfast table while Asami sat down beside her, giving her own polite greeting to Senna and Tonraq with a shy smile and a respectful dip of the head.

"Good morning, Korra." Senna smiled at fondly at her daughter, reaching for the kettle to pour some coffee.

Tonraq looked up at Asami. "Were you able to sleep alright last night? I heard some of the staff complaining about loud noises in your wing of the palace this morning."

"Oh, really? That's strange; I didn't hear anything." Asami laughed a little weakly for some reason as she absently adjusted the scarf she was wearing around her neck as casually as possible. "Did you, Korra?"

"N-nope!" Korra focused her attention on her breakfast a little too eagerly to be entirely believable; she furiously spread the blubber-jam on her toast with her knife as though the piece of bread had wronged her in a previous life.

Senna and Tonraq stared at the mess that their daughter was making of her breakfast and gave each other amused looks before Senna giggled and Tonraq shook his head, taking a sip of his coffee to hide the small smile on his face.

They made small talk over their morning meal, recounting some of the previous day's events. Dinner had been a loud and chaotic affair, as the entire air family, including Katara, had stayed over at the Palace for dinner during which Asami and Korra had had to tell everyone about what had happened in the Spirit World. In order for the story to make any sense at all to Senna, Tonraq and Katara however, first they had to get the water tribesmen up to speed on everything that had been going on in Republic City for the last several months, including the advancements of Asami and Korra's relationship. The chat had lasted well into the night, and Tenzin and Pema had ended up having to carry a sleeping Rohan and Meelo home to Katara's.

(All three older water tribesmen took news of Asami and Korra's dual pregnancies in stride, without a single raised eyebrow in place, which sort of weirded out Korra a little bit, until Katara had confessed that Kya had already had to let her know as her daughter had contacted her for healing advice some weeks back, while Tonraq had sort of had the surprise at least partially spoiled earlier in the day.

When Korra had asked her mother why she was virtually unfazed by the news, Senna had only laughed lightly and said, 'I was surprised when you started fire bending at three years old, Sweetie. I don't think anything's managed to surprise me after that. And also, you and Asami are news worthy enough on the world stage that even the gossip rags down _here_ run columns on you guys sometimes, and I have to admit, some of the stories I've been hearing from the staff made this news seem almost dull by comparison.")

Eventually, breakfast was finished and Tonraq cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "So, Korra, how would you like to go ice fishing with me today?"

The way Korra blinked confusedly at the offer let Asami know that this was not a familiar past time between the father-daughter pair, but the hopefulness in Tonraq's voice also let Asami know that this was not an offer that Korra could refuse in good conscience, even though it had come from quite out of the blue.

"Um... o... kay?" Korra looked over at Asami with a slight crinkle in her brow and that was when Senna piped up helpfully, putting her hand lightly over Asami's own.

"While Korra's off with her father, Asami," Senna's smile was obviously meant to disarm the pretty young woman her daughter had brought home and it worked, "how would you like spending the day with me? I'd love to get the chance to know you a little better."

And confronted with her own offer for which it was impossible for her to decline, Asami found herself trading concern-tinged looks with Korra, before she nodded weakly at her soon to be mother-in-law.

* * *

><p>A few hours later found Korra and Tonraq bundled up in their parkas quite a ways away from the main city, sitting on chairs in an igloo they had bended together in record time, facing one another holding onto twin fishing rods dipped into a hole in the ice they had also created with their bending skills.<p>

Korra knew that ice fishing was a time honored water tribe traditional activity between father and son, and the whole act of making an igloo together and carving the fishing hole usually took a full day if not longer, and was a powerful bonding activity specifically because of the time it took. Since she and her father were master water benders however (with Korra cheating with a few fire bending techniques here and there), setting up the igloo and drilling the fishing hole had taken a little more than a few flicks of the wrist before they'd sat down on their chairs and dipped their fishing rods into the hole silently.

(Korra kinda got the impression her father was a little disappointed in her impatience, but, oh well, what's done was done.)

Several times, Tonraq had opened his mouth and Korra had looked up at her father, relieved that he was finally going to say whatever it was he had felt that he needed to drag her all the way out here to say, except that when their eyes would meet, Tonraq would shut his mouth almost audibly and then look intensely at his fishing rod again.

Once, Korra thought her dad was going to say something, but he only reached for the thermos of tea between them instead.

Then Tonraq shifted in his chair and Korra thought again that it would happen, except that her father was only scratching an itch on his behind.

This exchange had repeated itself for at least three iterations now, and the silence between them had been growing in awkwardness for the last 25 minutes and was slowly stretching on through the 26th before Korra finally lost her patience and just sighed. "Dad?"

Tonraq looked up.

Korra gave her father an awkward smile. "This is really uncomfortable. What are we doing out here?"

And when asked this question point blank by his daughter, Tonraq showed that he was a warrior through and through, for he was not someone who flinched from direct head-on confrontation. Still, having said this, it was clear that the Chief was still not altogether comfortable with what he had to say and he furrowed his brow, needing to summon his courage to meet this situation head on.

"Korra, your mother and I feel like there are some things that we should talk about in light of the wonderful news you and Asami shared with us yesterday."

_'Finally!'_

Taking her cue from her father, Korra put down her fishing rod and looked her dad seriously in the eyes. "Okay. So let's talk."

Tonraq pursed his lips. "... Korra, we _have_ to find some way to convince Asami to marry you."

Korra fell off her chair.

Quickly getting back up and slapping away the family of sweatdrops that had sprouted on the back of her head, she indignantly cried out, "why are you saying it like it's a foregone conclusion that she_ doesn't_ want to marry me?!"

"Well, no offense, Sweetheart, but isn't she sort of out of your league?" Tonraq raised an eyebrow incredulously.

Korra face planted hard enough to into the ice to send a massive crack through it. The igloo around them creaked dangerously as its very foundations were shaken. "Dad, I'm the _Avatar_ for crying out loud!"

"Yes, but that doesn't automatically make you _a catch_ now does it? I mean, come on, Korra! Even though we never could have seen this coming, your mother and I raised you right! If the both of you have managed to knock each other up, then you would have done the right thing and asked her to marry you by now, _right?_ But you two didn't mention anything at all about marriage last night, which leads us to conclude that Asami must have said no."

Those sweatdrops returned to the back of Korra's head with a vengeance, spawning several generations of descendants. "Dad! Seriously?!" Korra sputtered indignantly. "I...! I don't even know where to _begin_!" Her mouth flapped open and shut a few times. "I mean, for one thing, why would you automatically assume that _I'm_ the one who would have done the proposing?"

Tonraq folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow. "Korra." He said flatly. "Ever since you were little, your mother and I could tell that whether you ended up with a husband or a wife, _you_ were going to be the one giving the betrothal necklace. Or need I remind you of that time with Katara?"

"Dad, I was five!"

"And you might be a little taller now, but you really haven't changed all that much."

Korra face-palmed. An annoying part of her brain chose that moment to say to her that her father probably did have a point; Korra _had_ been planning to be the one to pop the question after all, and Asami had somehow picked up on Korra's unspoken desire to be able to do it so hadn't done it herself in the intervening weeks.

"Fine. Well, what if I really just thought it was better _not_ to ask her to marry me right away? I mean, isn't a harpoon-spear wedding a little out of date in this day and age? You're supposed to marry for love, not obligation!"

And the look on Tonraq's face was one of such obvious, 'oh-spirits-where-did-we-go-wrong?!' distress that Korra thought she might as well have told her father she hated him or something and Korra couldn't help but feel a little guilty.

Tonraq put a hand to his brow and sighed heavily.

"Dad..."

"Korra, no. I'm sorry for not giving this speech to you earlier, but you've gotta hear it, okay? So just sit tight and hear me out."

And despite the indignation in Korra's heart, she crossed her arms and did as her father requested.

Tonraq looked his only child in the eyes, took a deep breath, and launched into The Dad Speech.

"Korra, I can appreciate your sentiment that marriage should be done only for love. I do agree with you on some level there. But once children are part of the equation, you owe it not just to them, and not just to your partner, but also to _yourself_ to at least give marriage a try. Legally speaking, it gives you protection over your children. Spirits forbid, but what if something happens to Asami? The child she's carrying has no legal tie to you, and you've just experienced that even _spirits_ can be plagued with bureaucratic incompetence; how badly do you think humans could mess that up? And what if something happens to you? What rights will Asami have over the child you're carrying?"

Korra couldn't help but blink as her father gave her this advice, feeling a little stunned. She definitely hadn't thought about marriage in this regard before.

"And that's just legally speaking. More importantly, marriage in and of itself... it... it _does_ hold meaning, Korra. It absolutely does. There's a lot of young people in the tribe these days who have decided it's no longer fashionable to marry, that living together is enough, but to wake up in the morning and know that the one beside you is _yours_, and that you are _theirs_... Korra, it would break my heart if you did not experience that joy."

Tonraq trailed off then, sighing heavily.

For the longest time, Korra wasn't sure what to say. She just stared at her father, and felt her heart overflow with love and respect for the man who had raised her. Wordlessly, she got up and threw her arms around her father's body in a hug, and Tonraq hugged her back.

"You really can't go around making such impassioned and sappy speeches to me, Dad. My hormones are _already_ super imbalanced - I'm going to start bawling my eyes out at any moment here!"

Tonraq laughed, even as Korra wiped a stubborn tear from her eye. "I'm sorry, Sweetheart. In all seriousness, I never thought I'd have to give this Dad Talk to you. Aren't girls supposed to intrinsically know these sorts of things?"

Korra punched her father in the shoulder playfully, and Tonraq gave a mock grunt of pain.

When Korra sat down again, she gave her father a shy smile. "Actually, Dad, there's something I didn't tell you about because, well, it just happened this morning. I did end up proposing to Asami and she... she said yes."

Tonraq stared at his daughter for a long while before he gave a loud bark of laughter and wrapped his massive arms around his daughter once again before twisting her into a headlock and ruffling her hair. "Oh, you sly little...! That's wonderful news, Sweetheart! Congratulations! Hah! I knew we raised you right!" He paused. "Wait, what did you use for a pendant? Your mother always thought she'd be passing hers onto you..."

"I used a stone from the Tree of Time," Korra explained, feeling a little pleased with herself as she fished the stone out of her pocket to show her father. "I didn't have a chance to carve it yet, so Asami gave it back to me and I'll re-give it to her once I've got a chance to work on this and set it into an actual necklace."

"You hadn't even carved it yet?" Tonraq looked a little amazed. "So... you essentially presented her with a rock, then. That you found somewhere. And she actually said yes?"

Korra gave her father a wounded look. "Hey! This rock has meaning to it!"

Tonraq still didn't seem altogether convinced. "Huh. Well, she's definitely a keeper, that one."

* * *

><p>Truth be told, Asami found herself feeling more than just a little nervous to be separated from Korra. Even though she rationally knew that Senna was one of the kindest and warmest women in the world, the fact of the matter was that this was going to be the first time she'd ever spent any length of time at all with the woman who was going to be her future mother-in-law and she really, really, <em>really<em> wanted Senna to like her.

Korra's mother had been remarkably composed the previous night after Asami and Korra had broken the news of their relationship and subsequent pregnancies to her parents, and while Tonraq had seemed a little stunned, Senna had simply smiled warmly, wiped the tears of joy from the corners of her eyes and rushed forward to give the both of them warm hugs of congratulations.

_'Don't worry,' _Korra had tried to reassure Asami earlier in the morning as she had left the Palace with her father, _'Mom's really easy to get along with, and she already likes you!' _

But despite her girlfriend's (_fiancee!_ - corrected a giddy part of her heart) words, still, Asami had trouble calming the butterflies of anxiety down in her tummy.

_'At least that's just anxiety instead of morning sickness.'_

The expression on Senna's face was one of warm pride as she sat down beside Asami and handed her the thick book-like binder she had in her arms. Asami put her tea down on the coffee table and accepted the item from the older woman before her eyes instantly brightened, recognizing the item for what it could only be. A pleased smile of delight stretched across her face as she looked at Senna. "A photo album?"

"That's right," Senna nodded happily. "Those would be Korra's childhood photos. There's no way she'd ever let me show these to you if she were around to stop me, but since she and Tonraq aren't here, I figure now's my chance to embarrass her."

The older woman opened the album to the first page and the very first picture was a family portrait - a younger Senna sitting upright in bed holding a swaddled Korra who couldn't have been more than a couple hours old at that point, while Tonraq beamed proudly behind his wife.

It took all of Asami's willpower to clamp down on the embarrassing _'awww!'_ and _'cuuuuute!'_ and _'squeeeee!'_ type noises that were trying their damndest to escape from her mouth as she felt her heart do flip flops of joy and delight in her chest.

"I was only in labour for about three hours before I had her!" Senna laughed. "Even as a newborn, she was always so impatient and in a rush to get out into the world. That should have been my first warning, I guess!"

A few more pages in, and they found the photo of a three year old Korra being held by Tonraq looking very, _very_ grumpy in a frilly pink dress that didn't even look like it was water tribe in style, "that was from a sailor who'd just returned from a trading trip to one of the southern Fire Islands. He said the style was very fashionable everywhere, but I'm afraid Korra didn't like it very much. She was so angry and indignant that shortly after this picture got taken, she scream and released a breath of fire and lit the dress on fire." Senna laughed wanly. "That's when we first started to get the inkling that Korra might have been the Avatar."

Asami laughed.

They found the obligatory naked kid picture, though Korra's was a bit more impressive than most as hers was taken while she was running out the front door of the house with Senna chasing after her in the dead of winter in the south pole.

"This was just before the White Lotus came," Senna said, and Asami could see the nostalgia in her eyes. "Before Tonraq became Chief and we were still in that rundown old igloo at the edge of the city," she sighed fondly. "Sometimes... I wonder what life would have been like if... if things had turned out a little differently. I loved that igloo. It was cramped and every piece of furniture we owned had to be repaired multiple times, but those... those were still wonderful times."

And Asami could tell in the silence that followed after Senna had trailed off that the older woman worried endlessly for her husband, the Chieftain, and her daughter, the Avatar. Asami could tell that it was tough on her, knowing that her loved ones' destinies were so often fraught with danger, and that they often had to spend long periods of time away from her.

"Senna," Asami said softly, a little hesitantly, "if you miss Korra that much, why don't you come up to Republic City to stay with us for a little while? I'm sure Korra would like that very much too, as would I."

And Senna's eyes lifted in surprise at Asami's generosity before her eyes softened fondly and a wide smile spread across her face. "Thank you, Asami. That's really kind of you. But Tonraq's actually under a lot of stress here right now and I belong at his side. And I know Korra's in good hands with you, so I'm a lot less worried now than I was even just a few months ago, and..."

The corners of Senna's eyes crinkled a little as she remembered the hardness of the last three years. She grasped Asami's hands and held them firmly. "Oh, Asami, I just... I wanted to _thank you_. Thank you, so much, for sending your letters. I know... I know Korra didn't reply to very many of them, but she read and re-read every single one of yours, you know. Some days, she didn't do anything but sit and read and re-read your letters. It took her three years to get better but, without your letters, I don't know if she'd be better even now!"

And seeing her mother-in-law so close to tears triggered the torrid of hormones inside her to release her own mushy emotions as well, and Asami drew Senna in for a tight hug, both of them laughing weakly and crying in turns.

"You'll continue to look after her, won't you, Asami? Please promise me you'll continue to look after her?"

"Of course, Senna, of course!" Asami promised. "Korra... Korra's my everything. I... some days I can barely believe I'm lucky enough to be _hers_! I... " and Asami blushed, "I... I love her more than anything."

A broad smile came to Senna's face as she implicitly heard the confession in Asami's words; that her daughter and the woman she loved had committed to each other.

They hugged again.

It took a while for the waterworks to stop, before Asami wiped her eyes. "Sorry, Senna," Asami laughed. "I'm normally not such a big mush ball. It's the hormones, really."

And Senna nodded in understanding.

They spent the rest of the day chatting at length, Asami telling Senna all about herself, and her family, and what life was like for her and Korra in Republic City, while Senna told Asami all about Korra's childhood, and what life was like in the water tribe.

The hours fell off the clock like leaves off a tree in autumn, and by the time Korra and Tonraq returned home, for the first time in years, Asami felt like she had a family again.


	29. Nightmares

This time, when Asami opened her eyes, she was able to recognize that the foggy walking-in-water sensation that suffused through her senses meant that she was dreaming again; it took a moment longer however, for Asami to identify _what_ it was she was dreaming about.

Blinking the disorientation away, she looked about her and saw she was in a small but not entirely unpleasant room with a small single bed in the corner and a round table with a couple of chairs on the other side. The only signs of evidence that perhaps the room was not as benign as Asami had originally thought it to be was the fact that there were heavy bars on the windows, great big locks on the door, and what looked like several restraints hanging off of one side of the bed.

_'An... asylum?'_ Asami thought, bewildered. _'Why am I dreaming about an asylum?'_

"I don't know. Maybe you're crazy too?"

Turning around at the unexpected voice, Asami blinked in confusion as she saw the teenaged girl in a straightjacket sitting in the corner in the room. As her eyes fell upon her, Asami couldn't help but feel a great twist of something full of yearning inside as she instantly recognized the girl from... from somewhere.

The girl's long black hair was unbound and fell into her face, but it was not entirely unkempt; someone had brushed it. The hospital clothing she was wearing under the straightjacket was clean and unsoiled, as was the straight jacket itself. Her voice was equal parts bored and contemptuous in that way that only adolescence could really manage to convey and ennui in her golden eyes couldn't quite disguise the complicated miasma of conflicting emotion underneath.

Asam's eyes widened as her heart urgently pushed her brains to place the girl, and something deep in Asami's memory tinged and a vague recollection of seeing this girl wearing historic fire nation armour came upon her.

Despite the shockingly different state the girl was in compared to the last time she had dreamed of her (_'in that... in that Fire Nation garden!'_), there was no doubt in Asami's mind that they were the same person.

And the epiphany rushed upon all her senses like a tidal wave upon a beach.

_'My... daughter?'_

No sooner as the thought came to her did the girl's eyebrows lift, as though she could hear Asami's thoughts. A lot of the negativity dispelled from her golden eyes, before she schooled her expression into one of feigned boredom once again and looked away from Asami, leaning back against the wall.

And Asami could not understand exactly how she could know this – that this girl was her daughter, the child she was carrying right now in her womb - but from the very depths of her heart, her spirit, her _soul_, she knew that there was no one else this person could be.

No one else could quite cause this sort of wondrous joy to flare so strongly in a parent's heart even as abject _worry_ clenched at their stomach.

Seeing the girl in such a twisted at Asami's insides painfully and she took one step forward instinctively, wanting, so badly, to reach out to her.

The girl looked back over at Asami calmly, her lips twisted into that same contemptuous sneer that had been on her face for most of their last meeting. Curiously, Asami noted idly to herself, the girl now looked only to be in her mid-teens, where she had been in her late teens previously.

"You'll have to excuse my rudeness," the girl said dryly and not sounding very sorry at all. "I'd have prettied myself up a little if I knew I was going to have a visitor."

Asami stared back at the girl for a long time, before she was able to swallow back the torrid of emotions inside her. Her gut instinct was still telling her to go to her child and undo that terrible straightjacket, but some rational part of Asami's mind kept trying to point out that there might be a _reason_ why she was wearing that thing, even as another part of Asami's mind suggested that since this was all a dream anyway, maybe her daughter could probably get out of the restraints herself. So despite her mother's intuition screaming at her to do otherwise, Asami stayed standing where she was for now, though she found herself needing to clench her hands into fists to help control her shaking.

It took Asami a long time to figure out what to say in return to the girl.

"... Hi."

"..." The girl was clearly unimpressed with Asami's eloquence. "Hello, Mother."

Asami's heart skipped a beat at the title and she couldn't help but feel equal parts pleased and maybe perturbed as well. It wasn't every day a first time parent found herself having a conversation with a grown daughter after all, even if it was all happening in a dream.

"Why... are you wearing that?" Asami finally asked.

The girl was unperturbed. "Because people think I'm crazy."

Asami honestly hadn't expected the casual explanation. "... are you?"

Her daughter gave her a harsh bark of laughter. "Well I _am_ having a conversation with a figment of my imagination, aren't I?"

Asami frowned. Something very obvious the she couldn't quite put her finger on wasn't making sense. "But... but this is a dream. I'm dreaming - I _know _I'm dreaming." She looked down at herself and indeed saw that she was wearing a set of Korra's pajama bottoms and tank top; they never did get around to finding a new nightgown for Asami at the South Pole, so she and Korra had ended up sleeping in the buff for the rest of their stay. But now, on their journey back to Republic City, that hadn't seemed entirely appropriate, so they had raided Korra's old closet at the Chieftain's Palace before leaving the Southern Water Tribe.

Asami looked back over at her daughter. "Why would I dream about you being crazy?"

The girl looked away from Asami, leaning her head back against the wall, that bored expression coming back onto her face. "Well clearly, this isn't your dream," she said flatly. "This is _my_ dream. Or, more appropriately, my nightmare."

"_Your_ nightmare?" Asami considered this, a slow feeling of dread entering into the mix of emotions in her heart. "Why are you having nightmares about being in an asylum?"

The reaction was instantaneous, and completely at odds with the girl's earlier calmness. As if she'd been provoked, her daughter's face twisted into one of anger and she snarled at Asami. She leapt to her feet and for a moment, Asami thought she was going to attack her though she ultimately did not. "How _DARE_ you!" The girl shrieked. "_You_ put me in here in the first place, Mother, and you have the audacity to ask me that?! HOW _DARE_ YOU?! I _HATE_ YOU!"

The venom in the girl's words hit Asami with the full force with which they were flung and Asami felt as though someone had run her through with a knife. "W-what?" She gasped, involuntarily taking a step back, suddenly feeling hollow.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" The girl screamed, growing more and more unhinged. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD! EVERYONE THINKS I'M CRAZY BECAUSE YOU KEEP SHOWING UP IN MY HEAD! YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE, MOTHER! I KNOW YOU NEVER LOVED ME! YOU THINK I'M A MONSTER!"

It was some of Asami's worst nightmares come to life: her daughter spewing out hatred against her, so similar to the venom she had once spat at her own father in a fit of anger.

But, somehow, even as Asami thought she might be swallowed up by those horrible feelings of guilt, somewhere inside her, she could hear Korra's soothing words of comfort to her – that her father hadn't died thinking that she'd hated him, that he had found peace – and it was largely from her lover's words that she found herself drawing the strength she desperately needed right that moment to withstand her daughter's cruel tirade.

So Asami stood her ground, rooted to the spot, some ancient instinct inside her telling her to stand firm, to not budge an inch, to just let the girl hurl the abuse, no matter how much they hurt and confused her, knowing that she needed to let her get it out, that she didn't actually feel that way (hopefully).

It took a while, but eventually the girl fell to the ground, visibly shaking, and huddled in the corner. "You think I'm a monster." The girl repeated softly under her breath, her shoulder shaking. "You... you think I'm a _monster_!"

The hurt in the girl's voice nearly broke Asami's heart.

Because it was utterly crystal clear to Asami that it was her daughter herself who thought she was the monster.

Not able to take any more, Asami wordlessly crossed the room and knelt down to wrap her arms around the girl's head, pulling her into a tight hug.

Her daughter's eyes widened in horror and she struggled. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She screamed, struggling against Asami. "Let go of me! LET _GO_!"

"No." Asami replied firmly, even as she grunted, the girl's wrenching against her painful and probably bruise inducing had this been more than a dream. She continued to hold the girl closer, despite her struggles. "I'm not letting you go. Ever."

"AAAgaagh!" Incredulous tears started to stream from the girl's eyes as she continued to struggle and rage, smashing herself against the wall hard enough to dislocate her shoulder, again, if this had been in the physical world. "You're not even _here_! You _can't_ be here! You're just in my _head_!"

"You're wrong; it's not your head I'm in," Asami whispered softly, some ancient instinct deep inside her compelling her to speak the words she knew her daughter had to hear though she could never comprehend how she knew this. "It's your heart."

"AAAH!" Unable to take anymore, the girl took a sharp intake of breath, puffing out her cheeks, and then let loose a massive gout of flame into Asami's face.

Eyes widened in horror, Asami didn't have time to do anything at all as fiery death came towards her: all she could do was squeeze her eyes tight and grimace, even as she held the girl in her arms tighter, because she had already made a promise to her daughter - when they had plunged off the back of the raven-spirit that had tried to separate them - that she was never going to let her go.

"You're safe!" Asami cried, even as the flames burned horribly at her, burning her into nothing, repeating that promise she had made. "I've got you! I'm not letting you go! I'm not going to let you go for _anything_!"

And as she shouted this, even as her body melted away, Asami managed to open her eyes a crack, and she could see the girl - her daughter - golden eyes wide with shock and horror, even as the fire from her mouth abruptly extinguished itself.

The last thing Asami heard before she woke up was her daughter's anguished cry of regret.

"Mother! Don't go! Don't _go_!"

* * *

><p>Asami woke up in the middle of the night to Korra's shaking.<p>

"Asami? Asami, wake up!" Korra urged, worry clear in her voice.

"W-Wha-?" Asami asked blurrily, her eyes fluttering awake with a start. She was lying on her back while Korra was hovering to one side, a firm grip on her shoulder. Asami looked at Korra in confusion, blinking her eyes, surprised to find moisture caught between her eyelashes. "K-Korra?"

An expression of relief came onto Korra's face and she gave Asami a weak smile as she relaxed her hold on her shoulder. "You were having a nightmare."

Asami blinked a few more times, slowly, before her brow crinkled. "I'm not sure the nightmare was mine."

Korra frowned and cocked her head to the side questioningly. "?"

Asami put her hand on her lower abdomen, an expression of awe on her face. "I know this is going to sound crazy, but, I think the baby might be trying to talk to me..."

For a moment, Korra didn't quite know what to say as she considered what Asami was saying to her. Then she raised an eyebrow. "Um. Are you sure it's not just gas?" She laughed weakly when Asami gave her a look of reproach. "Okay, okay, not gas."

It took Asami a while for her to describe her dream to Korra - the one she'd just had, as well as what she could remember of the previous one, and when she was finished, Korra's expression of incredulity had turned into one of fascinated intrigue.

They laid comfortably beside each other in bed, holding hands and lost in thought, before Asami said softly, "... do you think it's got something to do with what King Enma said? About Lady Meng Po's... _'flag'_ on our daughter's soul?"

Korra nodded silently. "Yeah. I'm hoping we can get a little more information about her. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I kinda wish Botan was still here so we could grill him with questions, you know? But I guess he doesn't have any reason to stick around anymore."

They had only meant to stay a week at the South Pole with Korra's parents to enjoy the Glacier Spirit's Festival, but as they could not take a short cut through the spirit portal back to Republic City, they had had to take the slow way back, either by ship or air bison.

Then, the air family had had a surprise announcement to make, and that was the fact that Katara was going to relocate to Republic City to be with the rest of her family, seeing as how all her children and grandchildren were now gathered together in one spot. Once that decision had been made, however, everyone's stay at the Southern Water Tribe had had to be extended for a couple of weeks longer, so that the air family could help Katara prepare for the move.

When it was all said and done, by the time they'd left the South Pole, Korra and Asami had entered into the 2nd trimester, and the pregnancies were finally starting to show on both of them.

Everyone had decided that it was probably for the best to take it slow on the air bison, as the weather could be inhospitable this time of year, and they had planned to take several stops along the way. The first stop was the Southern Air Temple. This suited Korra and Asami just fine, as they had actually been hoping to do some research about this Meng Po that had been mentioned to them, and the Southern Air Temple's library boasted some of the most complete knowledge about the spirit world. The air family itself had also not been back to the Southern Air Temple where Aang had grown up since they had last been there on vacation three years earlier and were eager to return. They had arrived on Oogi and Pepper late in the evening so everyone had just ended up retiring for the evening.

"... I wonder if I'd be able to talk to her too?"

Asami turned to give Korra a look of wonder. "Can you do that? As the Avatar?"

"I don't know," Korra replied honestly. "But these don't sound like normal dreams, Asami. It sounds a little bit almost like meeting in the spirit world in some way - like our daughter's spirit is trying to reach out to you. And if that's the case, maybe I _can_ find some way to talk to her spirit too. I'll ask Jinora for some advice in the morning."

"That sounds like a good idea."

Smiling at her fiancee, Asami cuddled up to Korra's side and held her close, putting one hand on the gentle swell of Korra's lower abdomen affectionately.

Korra chuckled as she kissed the top of Asami's head as they drifted off back to sleep. "I'm afraid I haven't really been having any similar experiences with this one. The kid's been perfectly considerate so far. For which I am totally thankful."

* * *

><p>AN: Sorry for how long it took me to push this one out, guys. I just had a lot of trouble with it and I'm still not quite sure I like it though hopefully where I'm going with this will be a more interesting read (if not quite "fun").

And I think I should probably give a heads up that chapters are probably going to be a bit slower coming out now. I'm an organizer for my local anime con, and I've got a few deadlines coming up over the next month and a half so this fic will have to take a little bit of a back seat for now. But! I do promise I will finish it, as I do have a pretty good idea of how the whole story will play out now! Yay! Thanks for your patience in advance!


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